STEPHANIE GILBERT CBU Faculty Member Working on Research on Employers' Response to COVID 19

As staff at CBU and across the world adjust to remote working, CBU’s own Dr. Stephanie Gilbert, Assistant Professor in the Shannon School of Business, is taking a closer look at how employers are responding to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and what it means for organizations across the country.

Dr. Gilbert is part of a seven-person research team led by Dr. Kevin Kelloway at Saint Mary’s University. The team received $333,000 for a project titled “Organizational Response to Disease Outbreak” from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). As part of SMU’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program, this research group frequently collaborates with their shared specialization in how organizations can optimize the health and well-being of their employees.

“In an incredibly stressful and unprecedented time, organizations can play a key social role in this pandemic in terms of combating the spread of misinformation and infection,” says Dr. Gilbert. “How are organizations handling the crisis? Are they taking appropriate measures to protect their employees? How are they mitigating employees’ fears and anxieties?”

Over the next two years, Dr. Gilbert and her team will look at how organizations are challenged with the need to protect and promote the health and health practices of their employees while maintaining operations during disease outbreaks. Their hope is to capture a broad variety of occupations and industries, which in turn, will inform organizations that wish to develop evidence-based crisis management plans in case of future outbreaks and help them understand the role organizations play in preventing the spread of disease.

During this global pandemic, Stephanie herself is working from home with her husband Jerred Stephenson and children Devon, two, and Evelyn, 6

“Transitioning to working from home has made the work-life boundary almost non-existent! This is something we'll be examining more in our research,” says Gilbert. “I don't have it all figured out and it's a challenge. I am lucky to have a very supportive partner who shares the load of childcare and household duties equally. Getting out for a family walk each day in our neighbourhood has been a nice luxury and gets everyone the fresh air they need.”

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