This study explores the impact of COVID-19 layoffs on surviving employees’ perceptions at Airbnb,... more 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.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 2020
We compared sharing economy development in 90 countries to demonstrate that higher qualities of g... more 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.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and services sector. Using the example ... more 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. Keywords: downsizing; Airbnb; sharing economy; organizational justice; distributive justice; procedural justice; interpersonal justice; informational justice; COVID-19
When does decentralization lead to adaptive governance? This study proposes a conceptual framewor... more 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.
This study explores the impact of COVID-19 layoffs on surviving employees’ perceptions at Airbnb,... more 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.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 2020
We compared sharing economy development in 90 countries to demonstrate that higher qualities of g... more 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.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the tourism and services sector. Using the example ... more 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. Keywords: downsizing; Airbnb; sharing economy; organizational justice; distributive justice; procedural justice; interpersonal justice; informational justice; COVID-19
When does decentralization lead to adaptive governance? This study proposes a conceptual framewor... more 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.
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Keywords: downsizing; Airbnb; sharing economy; organizational justice; distributive justice; procedural justice; interpersonal justice; informational justice; COVID-19
Keywords: downsizing; Airbnb; sharing economy; organizational justice; distributive justice; procedural justice; interpersonal justice; informational justice; COVID-19