Shame or Anger? The Impact of Negative Performance Feedback Sources (AI Versus Leader) on Employees' Job Crafting

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Psychology

Background:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in performance management, supplementing or replacing leader evaluations.
• Limited research exists on employee emotional and behavioral responses to negative performance feedback (NPF) from AI versus human leaders.
• Affective Events Theory provides a framework for understanding emotional responses to workplace events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how leader-delivered versus AI-delivered NPF elicits distinct emotions (shame and anger).
• To examine how these emotions influence employees' job crafting behaviors.
• To explore the moderating roles of leader trust and algorithm aversion.

Main Methods:

• Study 1: Scenario-based experiment comparing emotional reactions to leader vs. AI NPF.
• Study 2: Survey data from nine Chinese enterprises to test mediation and moderation effects.
• Analysis of emotional responses, job crafting, leader trust, and algorithm aversion.

Main Results:

• Leader NPF evoked greater shame; AI NPF induced stronger anger.
• Shame mediated the effect of leader NPF on promotion-oriented job crafting.
• Anger mediated the effect of AI NPF on prevention-oriented job crafting.
• Leader trust weakened the leader NPF-shame link; algorithm aversion strengthened the AI NPF-anger link.

Conclusions:

• Employee emotional and behavioral responses to NPF differ significantly based on the feedback source (leader vs. AI).
• Understanding these distinct emotional pathways is crucial for designing effective human-AI feedback systems.
• Interventions should consider moderating factors like trust and algorithm aversion to optimize feedback delivery.