Challenge

Employee burnout is often addressed through workload management, wellness programs, or organizational policies, but less attention is paid to the role of day-to-day supervisor communication. Organizations frequently struggle to understand how leadership behaviors and communication practices influence employee well-being, engagement, and resilience, particularly in high-pressure work environments.

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Approach

I investigated how supervisors' leadership styles and communication practices affect employee burnout. Using survey data from 166 full-time employees, I examined the relationships between task-oriented leadership, relationship-oriented leadership, supervisors' perceived communication competence, employees' communication satisfaction, and key dimensions of burnout, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment.

 

Insight

Both task-focused and relationship-focused leadership were associated with employees perceiving their supervisors as effective communicators. However, only relationship-oriented leadership was linked to higher employee communication satisfaction. Communication satisfaction emerged as a critical factor predicting lower emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, while also increasing employees' sense of personal accomplishment. These findings suggest that employees are less likely to experience burnout when supervisory communication fosters trust, support, and meaningful workplace relationships.

 

Implication

This research demonstrates that stakeholder engagement is as important inside organizations as it is with external audiences. Effective leadership communication is not simply about transmitting information or managing tasks; it is about building relationships that create trust, engagement, and psychological support. For organizations, the findings highlight the importance of communication strategies that prioritize listening, relationship-building, and employee experience. Investing in communication competence and relational leadership can improve employee well-being, reduce burnout, and strengthen organizational performance and retention.

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Read My Publication

Xu, Y., & Farris, K. L. (2022). The influence of leadership styles and supervisor communication on employee burnout. Journal of General Management, 49(3), 169-179. 

Challenge 

Many disaster preparedness initiatives assume that providing information, training, or resources will motivate communities to prepare for flooding and other risks. However, underserved communities often continue to face significant preparedness challenges despite the availability of these programs. What is often overlooked is how factors such as chronic stress, historical inequities, broken trust, and limited opportunities for participation shape how communities engage with preparedness efforts.

 

Approach

I analyzed 32 in-depth interviews with a diverse group of stakeholders, including community members, community leaders, and city employees in a flood-prone community, examining how different groups perceived preparedness efforts, where communication breakdowns occurred, and what barriers prevented meaningful community engagement with existing disaster preparedness programs.

 

Insight

I found that preparedness is not simply a communication or knowledge problem. Community members often understood the risks they faced but were unable or unwilling to engage with preparedness initiatives because of broader social and structural barriers. Effective stakeholder engagement depended on addressing chronic everyday stressors, rebuilding trust damaged by historical mistreatment, creating opportunities for meaningful community participation, and ensuring that preparedness efforts reflected community priorities and concerns. These findings led to the development of the concept of community preparedness efficacy, which highlights the conditions that must be in place before communities can effectively act on preparedness information.

 

Implication

This research demonstrates that successful stakeholder engagement and communication strategies require more than information dissemination. Organizations seeking to drive behavior change, improve program adoption, or strengthen community resilience must first understand the social context, trust dynamics, and equity challenges that shape stakeholder responses. The findings provide a framework for designing engagement strategies that prioritize relationship-building, inclusive participation, and trust-centered communication, ultimately leading to more effective and equitable outcomes for communities and institutions alike.

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Read My Publication

Xu, Y., Stephens, K., Carlson, N., Lieberknecht, K., & Leite, F. (2024). Moving toward preparedness efficacy: Uncovering barriers to preparedness in communities disproportionately impacted by flooding. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 32(1), 1-14.

Challenge

As organizations increasingly adopt AI tools, employees are expected to train, validate, and collaborate with AI systems. Yet we know little about how people make sense of these interactions, particularly when they must evaluate and correct AI-generated outputs. Understanding these dynamics is essential for building AI readiness and confidence in human-AI collaboration.

 

Approach

I collaborated with other researchers to work with individuals who trained machine learning systems by labeling social media data and correcting AI-generated labels, examining how people interpreted their role in training AI and how their perceptions changed when interacting with machine-generated outputs.

 

Insight

Employees relied on mental models to guide how they worked with AI systems. Many viewed AI as something they were actively teaching, which fostered a sense of responsibility and collaboration. However, when AI-generated labels conflicted with their own judgments, participants often experienced uncertainty and self-doubt about who was correct. These interactions revealed that working with AI is not simply a technical task but also a communication process in which people continuously negotiate trust, authority, and expertise.

 

Implication

Organizations preparing their workforce for AI adoption must focus on more than technical training. Employees need support in developing confidence, trust calibration, and effective collaboration practices when working alongside AI. This research highlights the importance of designing AI training programs that address both technical skills and the human factors that shape successful human-AI collaboration.

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Read My Publication

Stephens, K. K., Harris, A. G., Hughes, A., Montagnolo, C., Nader, K., Stevens, S. A., Tasuji, T., Xu, Y., Purohit, H., & Zobel, C. (2023). Human-AI teaming during an ongoing disaster: How scripts around teaching and feedback reveal this form of human-machine communication. Human-Machine Communication, 6(1), 65-85.