Me, You or AI? How do we Feel about Delegation

Driven by the growing availability of data and information paired with the human brain’s limited processing capabilities, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly relevant actor in strategic decision making. To leverage the potential AI provides for strategic decision making, firms rely on managers that are willing to transfer authority and control to AI-based decision systems. By analyzing the willingness to delegate strategic decisions and emotional responses to outcomes of delegated decisions, this research contributes to a better understanding of human behavior in decision delegation to AI in the context of strategic decisions. Based on a policy-capturing study, we find that humans are less likely to delegate a strategic decision to AI, than to another person. Further, our findings reveal that emotional responses to the outcomes of delegated decisions are more intense when responsibility was delegated to another human being, rather than to an AI-enabled system.

[1]  Joseph P. Simmons,et al.  Overcoming Algorithm Aversion: People Will Use Imperfect Algorithms If They Can (Even Slightly) Modify Them , 2016, Manag. Sci..

[2]  J. Child,et al.  Influences on strategic decision effectiveness: Development and test of an integrative model , 2007 .

[3]  A. M. Harrell,et al.  An Application of Expectancy Theory to Explain a Manager's Intention to Use a Decision Support System , 1994 .

[4]  N. Epley,et al.  The mind in the machine: Anthropomorphism increases trust in an autonomous vehicle , 2014 .

[5]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  The experience of regret and disappointment. , 1998 .

[6]  Martin Hilbert,et al.  The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information , 2011, Science.

[7]  Chris Reed,et al.  A logic of delegation , 2010, Artif. Intell..

[8]  Jane S. Webster,et al.  Rational and social theories as complementary explanations of communication media choices: two polic , 1995 .

[9]  Hettie A. Richardson,et al.  CEO WILLINGNESS TO DELEGATE TO THE TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM: THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE , 2002 .

[10]  Angelika Dimoka,et al.  On the Use of Neuropyhsiological Tools in IS Research: Developing a Research Agenda for NeuroIS , 2012, MIS Q..

[11]  T. Grandon Gill.  Early Expert Systems : Where Are They Now ? , 2002 .

[12]  Arthur C. Graesser,et al.  Is it an Agent, or Just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents , 1996, ATAL.

[13]  Jennifer M. George,et al.  Affect, emotion, and decision making , 2016 .

[14]  Harald Schaub,et al.  Errors in Planning and Decision‐making and the Nature of Human Information Processing , 1994 .

[15]  E. Gordon,et al.  Autonomy gone awry: a cross-cultural study of parents’ experiences in neonatal intensive care units , 2004, Theoretical medicine and bioethics.

[16]  Matthew K. O. Lee,et al.  A Trust Model for Consumer Internet Shopping , 2001, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[17]  J. G. Williams,et al.  Participation in Decision Making , 2021, Organization in the Economic Firm.

[18]  J. Pligt,et al.  The impact of probability and magnitude of outcome on disappointment and elation , 1997 .

[19]  Lyn M. Van Swol,et al.  Understanding algorithm aversion: When is advice from automation discounted? , 2017 .

[20]  Robert Sugden,et al.  Disappointment and Dynamic Consistency in Choice under Uncertainty , 1986 .

[21]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[22]  Colin Hales,et al.  Leading Horses to Water? The Impact of Decentralization on Managerial Behaviour , 1999 .

[23]  K. Scherer.  What are emotions? And how can they be measured? , 2005 .

[24]  M. Siegrist,et al.  Test of a Trust and Confidence Model in the Applied Context of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Risks , 2003, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[25]  Linda G. Pierce,et al.  The Perceived Utility of Human and Automated Aids in a Visual Detection Task , 2002, Hum. Factors.

[26]  Carrie R. Leana.  Power relinquishment versus power sharing: Theoretical clarification and empirical comparison of delegation and participation. , 1987 .

[27]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Participation in Decision-Making: One More Look , 1979 .

[28]  Anna-Maria Seeger,et al.  Designing Anthropomorphic Conversational Agents: Development and Empirical Evaluation of a Design Framework , 2018, ICIS.

[29]  E. Salas,et al.  Expertise-Based Intuition and Decision Making in Organizations , 2010 .

[30]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  User Acceptance of Knowledge-Based System Recommendations: Explanations, Arguments, and Fit , 2015, Decis. Support Syst..

[31]  G. Strauss.  Some notes on power equalization , 1964 .

[32]  Campbell R. Harvey,et al.  Capital Allocation and Delegation of Decision-Making Authority within Firms , 2011 .

[33]  B. Mellers.  Choice and the relative pleasure of consequences. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[34]  Sukanto Bhattacharya,et al.  Rise of the Machines , 2016 .

[35]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Making Fast Strategic Decisions In High-Velocity Environments , 1989 .

[36]  Kirsten G. Volz,et al.  Emotions and Decisions , 2016, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[37]  William Ocasio,et al.  Attention to Attention , 2011, Organ. Sci..

[38]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[39]  B. Schwartz.  The tyranny of choice. , 2004, Scientific American.

[40]  Don A. Moore,et al.  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 2019 .

[41]  Jeremy Rose,et al.  Socio-Theoretic Accounts of IS: The Problem of Agency , 2005, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[42]  Hugh J. Watson,et al.  Preparing for the Cognitive Generation of Decision Support , 2017, MIS Q. Executive.

[43]  Carrie R. Leana.  Predictors and Consequences of Delegation , 1986 .

[44]  G. Yukl,et al.  Determinants of delegation and consultation by managers , 1999 .

[45]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[46]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  On the psychology of ‘if only’: Regret and the comparison between factual and counterfactual outcomes , 2005 .

[47]  Andrew M. Rosenfield,et al.  NOISE: How to overcome the high, hidden cost of inconsistent decision making , 2016 .

[48]  K. Halfmann.  Emotion and decision-making in the aging brain , 2015 .

[49]  R. Lewicki,et al.  Trust in relationships: A model of development and decline. , 1995 .

[50]  Masooda Bashir,et al.  Trust in Automation , 2015, Hum. Factors.

[51]  Xavier Ferras‐Hernandez,et al.  The Future of Management in a World of Electronic Brains , 2018 .

[52]  K. Orfàli.  Parental role in medical decision-making: fact or fiction? A comparative study of ethical dilemmas in French and American neonatal intensive care units. , 2004, Social science & medicine.

[53]  A. Griffin,et al.  Exploring Portfolio Decision‐Making Processes* , 2011 .

[54]  M. Leyer,et al.  Me or information technology? Adoption of artificial intelligence in the delegation of personal strategic decisions , 2019, Managerial and Decision Economics.

[55]  M. Haas,et al.  Information, Attention, and Decision Making , 2015 .

[56]  P. Harms.  Adult attachment styles in the workplace , 2011 .

[57]  FROM THE EDITORS BIG DATA AND MANAGEMENT , 2014 .

[58]  Michael P. Haselhuhn,et al.  With great power comes shared responsibility: Psychological power and the delegation of authority , 2017 .

[59]  Christine Rzepka,et al.  User Interaction with AI-enabled Systems: A Systematic Review of IS Research , 2018, ICIS.