Sacrificing heroes or suffering victims? Understanding how divergent social accounts of essential employees shape third parties’ reactions in the COVID-19 pandemic
***M.Sc. Students, this event can count towards one of the six mandatory Research Seminars Series needed to attend (MHS6991 or MGT6991).***
Zhenyu Yuan, PhD
In the COVID-19 pandemic, essential employees working on the frontlines are widely recognized as heroes. At the same time, stories abound whereby they are not provided adequate support and protection on their jobs. Interestingly, essential employees have been portrayed as heroes rather than as victims, with the heroism (but not the victimization) accounts having quickly become the predominant rhetoric adopted by organizations and news media. To shed light on the caveat of overplaying the heroism accounts, the present research investigated how heroism and victimization accounts may differentially influence third parties’ moral reactions. In this talk, I will present the three studies that we conducted to answer this research question, followed by a brief discussion of the various opportunities and challenges in studying practically relevant topics in the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the Speaker
Zhenyu Yuan is an Assistant Professor of Managerial Studies in the College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the University of Iowa (2019). His research focuses on job stress and employee well-being, workplace relationships, and quantitative research methods. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, in such journals as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and Human Resource Management. His work has been covered in mainstream media outlets, including Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, CBS, and the Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as the editorial board member of Personnel Psychology and Management and Organization Review.
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