We are pleased to announce that Assistant Professor He Guohua from the College of Management has had his high-impact academic paper accepted and published online in theJournal of Business Ethics , a leading global academic publication in the field of business ethics and is recognized as one of the prestigious Financial Times50 (FT50) journals, carrying significant weight in global business school research rankings. Professor He Guohua serves as the corresponding author on this paper, which represents a major achievement from his long-standing research at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and organizational ethics. This publication is also a significant milestone for the School of Management, reflecting its commitment to high-quality research output.
The paper, titled"The Ethical Costs of Artificial Intelligence: Investigating How and When Workplace Artificial Intelligence Usage Promotes Employee Unethical Outcomes,"challenges the prevailing consensus that "AI effectively enhances employee performance." While acknowledging AI's performance benefits, the research critically highlights the often-overlooked ethical risks it introduces. For the first time, the paper reveals that employee use of AI can fostermoral relativism, subsequently increasing unethical workplace conduct and tolerance towards others' unethical behavior.
Grounded in moral relativism theory, the research employed a robust multi-method approach: two experimental studies and a three-wave longitudinal survey. Utilizing cross-cultural data samples from both China and the United States, it systematically demonstrates how employee AI usage influences ethical beliefs and related behaviors. Crucially, the study found this effect to be particularly pronounced among employees withlower levels of moral identity.
This research makes substantial contributions by enriching the understanding of the ethical implications of AI applications and expanding the organizational behavior literature on the antecedents of workplace unethical behavior and moral judgment. The findings offer criticaltheoretical insights and practical recommendationsfor organizations navigating digital transformation, emphasizing the need to balance efficiency gains with ethical considerations and the importance of strengthening employees' moral identity.
