Leadership at the Frontier of Innovation (2)

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.

Continued from "Leadership at the Frontier of Innovation (1)"

Making an Impact by Connecting Academia and Practice

Dr. Wong:    As a hybrid academic coming from both industry and academia I seek to link theory with practice. We can’t achieve that alone in the ivory tower by simply building our own theories. We need to create impact in the industry. From my experience, I understand that the industry requires a more rigorous and evidence-based change in management which can be achieved through collaboration with academics.

Dr. Law:    Absolutely, our foremost objective is to make an impact on the world of practice. As someone coming from a purely academic background, I can attest to the noticeable gap between academia and practice, often viewed from an ivory tower. We read, conduct research and publish our findings in the hope that the industry leaders will read and adopt our findings. Unfortunately, the reality is closer to your suggestion that the industry leaders would prefer to collaborate together with us directly rather than reading passive research articles.

Dr. Wong:   Indeed, the ecosystem of journal publication consists of an  audience limited to academics, so we need to gain readership amongst the practitioners. There are very stringent requirements for publishing in academic journals including theoretical frameworks. However, I have observed a surge in practitioner-focused journals in the journal publishing industry and I am currently working with a colleague to explore the opportunity to launch a journal which prioritizes impact over theory, presenting best practices that could serve the practitioner world.

Emotional Impact of Human vs AI Feedback

Dr. Law:    One area which I would like to explore is the psychological impact of automated routine HR procedures. In a performance evaluation, the typical response from a human leader would consist of a quick yes or no answer which would carry a rather heavy emotional weight for an employee.

Dr. Wong:    Right, so we could assume that a robot would be handling a performance evaluation instead of talking to a manager. The conversation might look something like a ChatGPT chatboard and after reviewing your performance the robot might send a report to your supervisor after the conversation telling them to give you, Eddie, just a 2% raise or on the contrary they might say to give you a 20% raise.

Dr. Law:    Exactly, AI would handle the performance evaluations very much like in a video game by providing feedback and granting you permission to proceed onto a higher level. I am particularly curious about the emotional contrast between AI and human feedback, which could perhaps be examined through experiments measuring emotional responses.

Dr. Wong:    From my experience, managers generally dislike the task of annual performance appraisals, so I believe that many companies would be interested in carrying out such experiments as the prospect of automating such routine tasks would save them a lot of effort.

Dr. Law:    Agreed. Giving negative news has such an emotional bearing on both the appraiser and the appraisee. I think we could also say that when approving a leave of absence a human supervisor might not be 100% clear of the impact of that decision, whereas AI could calculate whether it was an affordable moment to take the leave.

Big Brother is Watching

Dr. Wong:    There are a number of emerging tools which are capable of monitoring employees’ work and providing suggestions for agendas. This is the future of organizations which promises a significant productivity gain, however, we must also confront the foreseeable concern of employee privacy.

Dr. Law:    Exactly. This goes back to the question of ethics and highlights the importance of setting clear boundaries to address growing concerns regarding what was once technostress but has evolved into techno exhaustion due to constant monitoring. We can agree that the ideal situation would be to achieve a balance between technological efficiency and ethical practice allowing benefits for both leaders and employees.

Dr. Wong:    Absolutely. I believe that leaders in the digital age need to consider not just trust in human interactions, but also the trust between technology and people. As we weigh the advantages and drawbacks of technology, we must also consider the privacy implications which may come with monitoring through technology.

Dr. Law:    Agreed. I always emphasize to students that we have to be performance-driven yet human-based. When dealing with technology implementations, we need to ensure they are firmly grounded in ethics and the question of balancing privacy and collective interest is a philosophical debate which we will need to continue exploring.

Dr. Wong:    As business school professors, our primary goal is to nurture future leaders and not solely those well-versed in business strategy and technology implementation, but also to foster ethical and responsible leadership. In the age of digital technology and innovation, these qualities are increasingly vital in light of the unprecedented capability of modern tools.

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