01/13/2025
By Nabi Ebrahimi

The Department of Management at the Manning School of Business invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation proposal defense by Nabi Ebrahimi on “AI Integration and Job Insecurity: Trust and Felt Trust as Uncertainty Reducers.”

Date: Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025
Time: 3:30 – 5 p.m.
Location: Pulichino Tong Business Center (PTB) 205 - Carter Conference Room

Committee Members
Tamara Montag-Smit (Chair), Ph.D., Department of Management, Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell
Kimberly Merriman, Ph.D., Department of Management, Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell
Huimin (Amy) Chen, Ph.D., Department of Accounting, Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell

Abstract:
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming organizations, with the AI market projected to expand exponentially. While AI integration presents several opportunities for organizations, it also brings significant challenges, particularly AI-driven job insecurity, where employees fear being replaced by AI technologies. This study explores how rapid integration of AI in organizations increases job insecurity due to the uncertainty it creates. Drawing on uncertainty management theory, the present study examines how felt trust (employees feeling trusted by management) and trust in top management can mitigate this uncertainty. Unlike trust, which operates passively by fostering reliance, felt trust actively enhances employees’ self-efficacy and motivates proactive career behaviors, thereby reducing uncertainty and job insecurity through a dynamic and impactful process. The role of felt trust is particularly critical in the context of AI integration, where the future of work remains uncertain, and the need for employees to proactively manage their careers is more pressing than ever. Using a pre-registered three-wave survey-based research design, the study will collect data from employees across industries to explore how these proposed mechanisms influence employees’ perceptions of job insecurity in the context of AI integration. This research contributes to the emerging literature on AI’s impact on employees and organizations. It also advances the trust literature by illustrating how employee trust and felt trust operate distinctly yet complementarily in addressing job insecurity. In addition to offering practical insights for organizational leaders, the findings from this study could also inform policymaking and shape broader societal perspectives on the ethical and strategic integration of AI in the workplace.

All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend.