Ayaj Rana

Welcome! I am a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), advised by Adam Seth Litwin, Forrest Briscoe, JR Keller, and Michael Maffie. 

I study the changing nature of work and its individual and organizational implications. At the individual level, I study how people experience power, identity, and relationality when algorithms govern their work in the context of digital work marketplaces. 

At the organizational level, I study how technological and institutional forces reshape work design and employee well-being in the context of healthcare and veterinary care. 

I use both qualitative and quantitative methods in my research, collecting data through interviews, surveys, and field experiments across both global north and global south settings.  

My research has received the Academy of Management (AOM) Best Paper Award, OB Division's Award for Outstanding Paper with Practical Implications for Management, and Cornell ILR School's Benjamin Miller Award.  

At Cornell, I also serve as a Graduate Resident Fellow in Alice Cook House, one of Cornell's residential colleges. In this live-in role, I mentor 45 undergraduates each year and support the house's living-learning programs.

Before Cornell, I earned an MPP at Georgia State University's Andrew Young School and studied high-tech entrepreneurship as a Georgia Innovative Economic Development Intern at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute. 

Prior to my Ph.D., I served as a faculty member at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh's premier university, and spent six years consulting across the public, private, and nonprofit organizations.