The AI Leadership Paradox: When Superior Automation Undermines Team Coordination

While Dell'Acqua et al. (2023) reveal that AI integration decreases team performance even when AI outperforms humans, existing leadership research focuses on technology adoption, not mitigation. This idea proposes designing leadership behaviors that actively counteract AI’s disruptive effects. For example, training leaders to foster "human-AI trust calibration" rituals to address reduced team trust and use paradoxical leadership to balance automation efficiency with human collaboration needs. Unlike studies treating AI as a neutral tool, this frames AI as a stressor requiring targeted leadership strategies, extending Pearce et al.’s (2023) call for dynamic leadership by adding a human-AI coordination layer—a critical gap as organizations rush to integrate AI without safeguarding teamwork.

References:

1. The Trouble with Teams… and Team Leadership: Toward a Research Agenda on the Paradoxical Nature and Reciprocal Dynamics of Vertical and Shared Leadership. Craig L. Pearce, D. van Knippenberg, Wendy P. van Ginkel (2023). Academy of Management Collections.
2. Super Mario Meets AI: Experimental Effects of Automation and Skills on Team Performance and Coordination. Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, B. Kogut, P. Perkowski (2023). Review of Economics and Statistics.