When Machines Manage

Letting AI lead workplaces has a human cost

Artificial Intelligence’s integration into the office has sparked significant academic and public debate. Most discussions have focused AI’s impact on employment. Meanwhile, it’s consequences on workers’ psychology and behaviour has been largely ignored. A new study, titled “Deployment of algorithms in management tasks reduces prosocial motivation” by Armin Granulo, Sara Caprioli, Christoph Fuchs, and Stefano Puntoni, addresses this less-explored dimension. The research investigates how the use of algorithms in “management tasks” (e.g., evaluating workers’ performance) affects employees’ prosocial motivation (the desire to protect and promote the well-being of others), a key aspect of workplace productivity and social interactions.

The findings reveal a consistent pattern: employing algorithms for management tasks, as opposed to human managers, leads to a significant reduction in employees’ prosocial motivation. This effect is attributed to increased objectification of coworkers, where they are perceived more as tools rather than humans with emotions and individuality. The paper demonstrates that this negative effect occurs even when algorithms and human managers work together and varies depending on the type of management task performed by the algorithms. These are invaluable lessons as we increasingly turn…