Transformational leadership and organizational culture as predictors of employee resilience: the moderating role of AI control in IT firms

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between employee resilience in the IT industry and the effects of transformational leadership and organizational culture, as well as the moderating effect of AI control systems in the relationships mentioned above. The objective of this research is to determine if AI control systems, which are becoming more prevalent in the IT industry, enhance or reduce the effects of transformational leadership and organizational culture on employee resilience. Design/methodology/approach The research method adopted is a survey-based, quantitative approach, based on the Socio-Technical Systems theory. The data from a total of 219 information technology professionals were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). A common method bias test was conducted using Harman’s one-factor test, while multicollinearity was checked using variance inflation factors (VIF). Findings The evidence shows that transformational leadership and organizational culture have a significant positive influence on employee resilience, which together account for 77% of the variation. In addition, AI control functioned as a negative moderator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee resilience (β = −0.213, p = 0.011), implying that over-automation diminishes the inspirational influence of leaders. In contrast, AI control was not a significant moderator in the relationship between organizational culture and employee resilience (β = 0.085). Practical implications From the results, IT firms need to engage in transformational leadership training and foster positive organizational cultures to increase their resilience. Nevertheless, AI tracking technologies need to be considered as complementary rather than control devices. In particular, HR departments need to develop human-in-the-loop systems that allow leaders to maintain autonomy, formulate AI governance frameworks that restrict AI’s interference in leadership engagements and develop leadership training programs emphasizing the importance of keeping inspirational communication in an AI-driven environment. Originality/value This paper is the first research to concurrently incorporate the concepts of transformational leadership, organizational culture and artificial intelligence (AI) control into a socio-technical perspective for investigating resilience among employees in the information technology (IT) industry. All previous studies either have considered each of these constructs separately or in other industries. The uniqueness of this research relates to the consideration of AI control as a boundary condition rather than an independent variable in the socio-technical perspective, highlighting the negative moderating role of AI control, which has never been empirically tested before.