Leadership at the Frontier of Innovation (1)

In this Meeting with the Experts, Professor Wong and Professor Law exchange their insights on the integration of artificial intelligence into the workplace. Drawing from resources including research with the industry, the experts delve into issues related to ethics and privacy.

Organizations Going Digital

Dr. Law:​  I am in the field of knowledge management, where we discuss the motivation to share knowledge and to create knowledge. With regards to digital transformation efforts where AI is used as a leader or as a facilitator to human leaders, there is a debate about whether AI can address the motivational aspects of people. The strategic perspective usually tends to lean on AI’s ability to process large amounts of data to reach optimal decisions, but its impact on human motivation is uncertain.

Dr. Wong:  That is an interesting area to explore. In my own research on the change in employee behaviors with new digital roles, I’ve found that leadership plays a key role in addressing those human motivational aspects. The emergence of roles like the Chief Digital Officer  has offered an opportunity for organizations to design digital transformations with both business goals and employee impacts in mind. Some predictions have been made about the future need for a Chief Innovation Officer who will go beyond focusing on technology and change to explore how emerging technologies can motivate creative thinking and drive innovation. This marks a turning point in our era, with this decade witnessing numerous breakthroughs across technology, medicine, and the practice of leaders.

Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Law:  A number of recent research papers examine the role of officers in charge of digital transformation or AI efforts, and the definition of that role remains unclear. In the end, AI or any kind of digitalization can be boiled down to the very basic job of programming. We have to ask ourselves whether that officer should be primarily responsible for technological aspects or whether they should be responsible for setting the boundaries for what consequences these digital tools can reach.

Dr. Wong:  This touches on the area of ethics and assumption of responsibility as in the ongoing discussion about autonomous vehicles. If these vehicles have an accident on the road, should the AI navigating the car assume responsibility or should the company providing that technology be responsible? We need to make sure that considerations of ethics are in place before we can work together with these very high-potential tools because although AI brings a number of benefits, it also poses risks for people in day to day dealings. As ethical AI users and ethical leaders we also need to understand what is the reasoning behind those decisions generated by this technology.

The Role of AI in Facilitating Leadership

Dr. Law:    In reference to the example of automated vehicles, that type of situation calls for instantaneous or immediate decisions. On the other hand, when we talk about leading a company, even though we might use AI, most cases would not require an immediate decision and the so-called generated decision or suggestion produced by the AI would ultimately be considered by human leaders in making a decision. So Louie, do you see a trend in changing who is in charge in the mid- to long-term future?

Dr. Wong:    Well, I currently have a research project looking at how AI facilitates leadership. Since we will inevitably be working with AI in the future, we need to determine how AI and organizational leaders will work together. As you said, this is  a topic which we need to continue to explore as we define their respective roles and how they can collaborate and facilitate each other.

Dr. Law:    My operational-level research explores the dynamics between leadership and followership. Besides hierarchical leadership, there is an ongoing ‘requesting and granting’ dynamic where, for instance, one day you might lead and the next day those roles might be reversed. This triangular relationship between AI, former hierarchical leader, and human followers is intriguing, as it allows us to examine the relationships between leadership and followership.

Proactively Engaging with Industry through Active Research

Dr. Wong:    One of the areas of research which I am involved in is called ‘action research’ where we collaborate with organizations, diagnose issues, collect data and make recommendations. Typical research would usually end at that point but in action research we propose and implement solutions and evaluate the outcomes. Through rigorous research this approach provides a meaningful way to impact in real-world situations.

Dr. Law:    I can see the leader of your action research as being somewhat like a protagonist in our case study approach. The proposed solutions and observations of their implementation could indeed be presented as a case through which we offer past lessons and future directions.

Dr. Wong:    Yes, also in the sense that it could reach many possible outcomes and is not just limited to a research paper. Our collaboration with companies often leads to consultation work or research projects investigating other areas which is a great opportunity as a researcher to gather data and gain perspectives through real-world situations.

Dr. Law:    I would also like to add that this method is in fact more proactive than typical case study research. The more traditional approach to gather information for a case study would begin with a theoretical inquiry and ask managers what actions were taken and what challenges they faced along the way. What sets your action research apart is you are proactively engaging with the organization as they move towards the outcome.

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