Sanghyun Lee

My research interests include sharing economy, organizational justice, downsizing, and adaptive governance.

The Experiences of Layoff Survivors: Navigating Organizational Justice in TImes of Crisis

S Lee, S Hong, W-Y Shin, BG Lee, Sustainability 15(24), 2023

This study explores the impact of COVID-19 layoffs on surviving employees’ perceptions at Airbnb, a key player in the hospitality industry, during the global pandemic. The crisis brought organizational justice into sharp focus, raising questions about fairness, employee satisfaction, and trust in management. Utilizing an interpretivist approach, we conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with Airbnb employees who survived the layoffs. Accompanied by a comprehensive literature review, our analysis delved into the challenges these employees encountered. The thematic analysis uncovered insights into organizational justice dimensions—distributive, procedural, interactive, and informational—and their role in shaping fairness perceptions and employee outcomes. Findings reveal that despite challenging circumstances, empathetic and proactive practices like regular check-ins and transparent communication significantly helped maintain fairness perceptions among survivors. This counters the common belief that layoffs invariably diminish justice perceptions. Our study demonstrates that negative impacts can be effectively mitigated through thoughtful organizational practices. In conclusion, the research underscores the importance of organizational justice during crisis-induced layoffs. It advocates for maintaining fairness and transparency to preserve employee trust and satisfaction, which are vital for organizational resilience and sustainability. This study enriches the literature on organizational justice and crisis management, providing valuable insights for businesses in similar situations.  [PDF] Researchgate.net / [PDF]MDPI / HTML MDPI / PDF MDPI / PDF w Cover


Is There a Right Way to Lay Off Employees in Times of Crisis?: The Role of Organizational Justice in the Case of Airbnb

S Lee, S Hong, BG Lee, Sustainability 15 (5), 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and services sector. Using the example of Airbnb’s recent layoff of 25% of its workforce, we focused on the role of organizational justice in mitigating the negative psychological impacts of layoffs. Based on a unique survey of Airbnb employees who survived the layoffs, as well as those who left, we employed an ordinary least squares regression to show that employees’ perceptions of organizational justice were positively related to their job satisfaction and trust in management, while being negatively related to their emotional exhaustion and cynicism. We discovered the crucial importance of interactional justice (i.e., interpersonal and informational justice). The respect, dignity, and politeness shown by management (i.e., interpersonal justice), as well as truthful and adequate communication about the procedure (i.e., informational justice) were pivotal to successfully conducting layoffs, especially during unprecedented economic uncertainty.  [PDF] Researchgate.net / [PDF]MDPI / HTML MDPI


Sharing Economy and Government

S Hong, S Lee, Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity 6 (4), 177, 2020

We compared sharing economy development in 90 countries to demonstrate that higher qualities of government are associated with greater sharing economy growth. To explain this finding, we assumed that sharing economy benefits are enjoyed by the public, whereas its costs are chiefly borne by market incumbents. In considering these competing interests, policymakers tend to favor the latter as single-industry interests that can be more easily organized to influence policymaking. We then hypothesized that an electorally competitive, depoliticized, and effective government may tilt the balance against the entrenched market incumbents, leading to the growth of sharing economy industries. Overall, we found some support for this hypothesis. We especially found that electoral competitiveness strongly impacted sharing economy development and that this impact was significantly greater in a country with a depoliticized bureaucracy and effective government. [PDF] Researchgate.net / [PDF]Sciencedirect / [HTML]Sciencedirect

Adaptive governance, status quo bias, and political competition: Why the sharing economy is welcome in some cities but not in others

S Hong, S Lee, Government Information Quarterly 35 (2), 283-290, 2018

Examining the variation in policies across 47 U.S. cities, we show that political competition has a significant effect on governments' regulatory responses to the sharing economy. Specifically, a greater level of political competition is associated with a more favorable regulatory response for sharing companies such as Airbnb. This finding is explained using the concepts of governmental status quo bias and adaptive governance. When considering the interests of the public and market incumbents, governments generally favor the latter (i.e., the status quo). This is because single-industry economic interests can more easily be organized into interest groups that can influence policymaking through lobbying. However, a greater level of political competition was found to reduce the power of entrenched market incumbents. This finding provides broad support to the hypothesis that the promotion of political accountability through greater political competition is conducive to adaptive governance. [PDF] Academia.edu


Adaptive governance and decentralization: Evidence from regulation of the sharing economy in multi-level governance

S Hong, S Lee, Government Information Quarterly 35 (2), 299-305, 2018

When does decentralization lead to adaptive governance? This study proposes a conceptual framework of the necessary conditions in which decentralization may result in adaptive governance. We thereby consider two distinct forms in the context of multi-level democratic governance: central and local governments. Based on prior findings that local governments are more sensitive to democratic influences than central ones, we point out that decentralization may hinder the process of adaptation if the considered policy embodies entrepreneurial politics (i.e., if the adaptation generates widely distributed benefits but narrowly concentrated costs). To support our analyses, we use the example of the recent rise of the sharing economy, as manifested by Airbnb, and present qualitative evidence suggesting that higher-tier (central or federal) governments are relatively more favorable to such sharing services than lower-tier (local or city) governments. [PDF] Acadenmia.edu


Policy development of sharing economy in Korea: Case of home-sharing

S Lee, BG Lee, 2017 4th International Conference on Computer Applications and Information, 2017

Sharing economy companies such as Airbnb and Uber have experienced exponential growth in popularity in recent years. The sharing economy is an emergent economic-technological phenomenon fostered by the developments in Information Technology. The paper attempts to address the problem of regulation in sharing economy in the field of home-sharing. Based on the results from interviews with the regulators in the central and provincial governments of Korea and the Public Policy Managers of Airbnb, we identify and suggest policy considerations and strategies for sharing economy in Korea. Our results not only help in understanding the policy developments in the field of sharing economy, but also help in developing the required robust policy and legal framework to support and strengthen the sharing economy in Korea. [PDF]Reseaerchgate.net


클라우드 컴퓨팅 발전을 위한 제언: 미국 사례를 중심으로

BGL Sanghyun Lee, Se Ho Kim, 한국인터넷정보학회 2015 춘계학술발표대회 16, PP. 0141 ~ 0142 (2015. 05), 2015 

세계적으로 클라우드 컴퓨팅 등장이 가속화되고 있고 클라우드 시장은 폭발적으로 성장하고 있다. 수많은 기업 들은 이미 구글과 아마존을 중심으로 다양한 클라우드 서비스를 통해 비용과 시간의 절감, 유연성과 효용성 증대효과를 얻고 있다. 하지만 국내 업계는 아직 활성화 단계에 접어들지 못하고 있으며, 이와 같은 환경 변화를 위해 정부가 어떻게 관련 정책을 촉진하고 규제해야 하는지에 대해 여러 가지 논의가 진행 중에 있다. 최근 클라우드 컴퓨팅 발전 및 이용자 보호에 관한 법안이 통과됨으로써 공공기관들이 민간 클라우드 컴퓨팅 서비스를 이용할 수 있도록 하는 법적 제도적 근거를 마련했다는 평가와 함께 국내 클라우드 산업에 추진력을 가하고 있다. 그러나 발전법의 조항 변경 사항 및 실제 중소 클라우드 기업들의 역할이 확대될 수 있는지 등에 대한 논란이 여전히 남아있는 상태이다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 클라우드 컴퓨팅에 대한 기본적인 개념을 설명함과 동시에, 클라우드 산업선진국인 미국의 해외 사례와 더불어 우리나라의 바람직한 클라우드 발전방향을 제시한다. [PDF[ Researchgate.net