The Influence of Leadership Style on the Acceptance of Generative AI in the Workplace - The Role of Organizational Commitment, Job Insecurity and Interaction Frequency

This thesis investigates the influence transformational and transactional leadership styles have on the acceptance of generative AI in the workplace. To account for other factors, I also examine the mediating effect of organizational commitment and the fear of job loss as well as the moderating effect of interaction frequency with the supervisor. Using a sample of 220 full time working participants, I find that technology acceptance does not significantly differ between transformational and transactional leadership. However, the results show that the fear of job loss significantly mediates the relationship between leadership and technology acceptance. While organizational commitment does not mediate the relationship, it does significantly influence technology acceptance. My research extends research incorporating threat rigidity theory by showing that transformational leadership reduces AI-related fear of job loss. Therefore, it highlights the importance of considering additional factors such as prior experience and openness to innovations in AI acceptance. The findings suggest that managers should adopt transformational leadership to decrease the fear of job loss and enhance organizational commitment to effectively increase AI acceptance in the workplace. Keywords: AI acceptance; fear of job loss; Gen AI; leadership style; technology acceptance