Backlash of AI Monitoring: Untangling the Cause of Counterproductive Work Behavior in Construction Projects

Abstract While the ubiquitous adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring in construction projects has substantiated significant gains in operational efficiency and safety, its backlash remains theoretically underdeveloped. In practice, AI is gradually replacing human supervisors to monitor workers’ operation trajectories and work status. However, existing research has not yet unpacked workers’ cognition and behavioral responses toward AI monitoring. Therefore, grounded in the combination of psychological reactance theory and social exchange theory, the current study investigates how AI monitoring triggers counterproductive work behaviors and the boundary role of perceived organizational support. Through a survey of 352 on-site workers across diverse engineering projects, our findings reveal that AI monitoring is positively correlated with both production and political deviance. This relationship is mediated by negative cognition and anger, while perceived organizational support serves as a critical moderator that mitigates these detrimental effects. Furthermore, combined with the two supplementary studies, this research further verifies that the AI monitoring context triggers reactance among on-site workers when they perceive threats to freedom. By uncovering these distinct underlying mechanisms, this study extends the application of psychological reactance theory to the research context of AI monitoring on on-site workers in construction projects and develops a context-specific explanation.