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AI IN THE LEAD? WHEN, WHY, AND HOW AI LEADERSHIP WILL (NOT) WORK

Project description

A closer look at employee interactions with AI leaders

Management and leadership have long been viewed as activities that only humans can perform. Yet, more and more workers worldwide are receiving instructions from AI managers. With such growing capabilities of AI, leadership tasks such as motivating and inspiring employees provided by AI might soon also become a reality. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the EU-funded AIITL project will study the effects of AI leadership on employee performance and satisfaction. Drawing from psychological theories, AIITL will investigate how AI leaders affect employees across tasks and leadership styles. AIITL aims to conduct two empirical studies with more than a thousand employees. The findings will provide valuable insights into sustaining a high-performing and satisfied European workforce.

Objective

Millions of employees around the globe work for an AI manager that structures their tasks and monitors their performance. While companies hope that such AI managers will lead to substantial performance benefits, it is critical that AI transits from a bureaucratic manager to an inspiring, transformational leader if companies want employee performance and satisfaction to peak. To date, however, research on the consequences of AI leadership cannot give relevant insights because scholars have studied employees in hypothetical scenarios or simplistic environments that do not mirror the complex realities of contemporary workplaces. My goal within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship is to tackle these problems by investigating interactions between employees and AI leaders from an interdependence theory view. Across two empirical studies with more than 1,400 employees, I will examine how AI leaders (programmed via a novel natural language processing tool) affect employees’ task performance and satisfaction when they really interact with AI leaders across interdependent tasks, different leadership styles, and work constellations. Given the rise of AI managers within Europe, this research will provide relevant scientific, practice, and policy insights aimed at sustaining a high-performing and satisfied European workforce of the future. I will accomplish these ambitious goals by combining my expertise with the profound knowledge of interdependence theory and longitudinal methods from Maastricht University’s scholars. In sum, this action and the foreseen two top-tier publications will substantially advance my research (both theory and methods) skills and extend my professional and practice network. Maastricht University is an ideal fit for this fellowship that will be a significant boost for my academic career and will provide a cornerstone for becoming a mature and renowned scientist in the field of AI leadership, in particular, and organizational behavior, in particular.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

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Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
Net EU contribution
€ 203 464,32
Address
MINDERBROEDERSBERG 4
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands
Region
Zuid-Nederland Limburg (NL) Zuid-Limburg
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data