Research for People in Organizations

Working With AI: How Team Cohesion Depends on Perceiving the AI as a Tool or a Partner

2026-03-11T02:55:22+00:00

With artificial intelligence (AI) getting more integrated into working life, the question is how to use it in a human-centered way to promote resources such as team cohesion, belonging, and support. While these factors are crucial to reaching common targets, not every AI system and application raises the same expectations to provide those resources. This online vignette study aims to answer the question how different role conceptualizations of AI can influence team cohesion in a hybrid team. Two hundred and seventeen (217) participants were randomly divided into two experimental conditions, i.e., to work with AI as a teammate or as a tool. They were then asked to evaluate their team perception while working with the AI, and their trust in the system. While the vignette manipulation of the different AI framings was unsuccessful, further analyses were carried out by separating the participants using their own rating of the AI role. The results show that team cohesion is significantly higher when AI is perceived as a teammate. Moreover, trust in AI has a significant influence on the team perception. Perceiving AI as a teammate leads to higher team cohesion compared to seeing it as a tool, moderated by the participant’s trust in the AI.

Volunteering in Organizations: A New Task for Human Resource Development?

2025-12-08T23:07:14+00:00

Volunteering is increasingly viewed as crucial for personal and organizational growth. Employers value volunteer experience, and scholarships frequently require proof of volunteering, underscoring its importance for skill development and career progress. This paper investigates the proposition that volunteering can be a valuable addition to human resource (HR) development. It begins by defining volunteering within an HR context and analyzing the advantages and challenges it presents to employees and organizations. The article then investigates the motivational structure of volunteering, which is shown to be driven by multiple motives, often overlapping with those in paid jobs. This finding indicates that similar psychological factors influence volunteering and paid work. The positive spillover effects of corporate volunteering in profit and non-profit organizations enhance its desirability. However, its implications for human resource development remain underexplored. Considering volunteering from an HR perspective allows organizations to better understand how voluntary engagement can contribute to skill development, value alignment, and long-term employability. Thus, this perspective enables a more strategic integration of volunteering into learning and development agendas, also to integrate volunteering in internal structures and culture. To preserve the voluntary nature of voluntary activities and avoid instrumentalization, a humanistic approach centered on empathy and unconditional appreciation for volunteers is recommended. Organizations should seek volunteering experience from job candidates while actively supporting and facilitating volunteer opportunities, taking responsibility for a robust system.

Shaping the Future of Organizational Research in a Rapidly Changing World of Work: Our Visions and Goals for “Research for People in Organizations”

2025-09-28T23:50:44+00:00

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Beyond the Emptiness Machine: New Directions for Leadership Research in Digital and AI-Driven Work Contexts

2025-09-09T03:27:30+00:00

In an era where many individuals have transitioned to hybrid or fully remote work models, often supported or managed by artificial intelligence (AI), and confronted with a seemingly endless stream of tasks, there is a growing fear of being consumed by the “emptiness machine” — a metaphor for the hollow substitute technology creates in place of rich human connections essential for experiencing social influence. These shifts in work design have important implications for leadership: While virtual communication and AI can enhance autonomy and efficiency, they may also weaken relational energy — the “social glue” that supports social influence — potentially contributing to a growing sense of workplace loneliness. Consistently considering contrasting aspects, we examine two key work design shifts that reshape leadership: (1) the structural changes brought by hybrid and remote work models, and (2) the content-related shifts in leadership tasks driven by the transformative impact of AI. By offering concrete research questions in these areas and outlining practical implications, we aim to inspire a more holistic understanding of leadership in a technologically transformed world.