Justin Rousseau
Pronouns: he, him
Research Mentor(s): Elizabeth Trinh
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Management and Organizations / Business
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 1 – 10am – 10:50am
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Elizabeth Trinh, Brittany Lambert , Sue Ashford , Brianna Caza , Justin Rousseau, Injin Park
Presenter: 52
Abstract
During the Great Resignation, many people voluntarily left their jobs during the pandemic and started to rethink their work conditions and careers. This caused a change in structures in the economy, one of which is an increasing trend of the “Gig Economyâ€. Our team explores the primary differences between Gig and full-time organizational work. We examined the main challenges in their respective jobs and explored what makes the biggest difference in helping them to cope with challenges and setbacks. Our objectives were to explore (1) relational/social challenges that workers in the traditional organizations face at work and the strategies to cope with them, (2) relational/social challenges that workers in the Gig Economy face at work, and the strategies to cope with them, and (3) compare the experiences of individuals working in the organizations versus Gig Economy. We conducted online experimental lab sessions with workers in the Gig Economy to analyze the work strategies as well as their daily highs and lows. We also conducted qualitative coding of interviews of both Gig and Organizational workers based on categories of challenges and strategies we have created. Furthermore, based on the data gathered from qualitative coding, we examined the trend of relational/social challenges and strategies of workers in each environment. An analysis of our compiled data of interviews, and qualitative coding finds that (1) most of the workers in the traditional organizations are suffering from insecurity and cope with the issues by communicating with coworkers, (2) and most of the workers in the Gig Economy are suffering from lack of support, disconnection, and invalidation and cope with the issues by reaching out to their networks. (3) Organizational workers struggled with inter-relational issues within the organization and gig workers struggled with connecting with people. Both workers are trying to connect with people in order to cope with their issues. These findings help add to the foundational dataset that will contribute to future research in the areas of types of work in the future.
Social Sciences
