“Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” is the name for one of French artist Paul Gauguin’s most influential paintings. Unsurprisingly, these very questions have occupied the minds of countless philosophers, artists, and scholars since the beginning of human civilization. These questions become especially salient when drastic changes occur in our environment, such as pandemics, wars, global economic challenges, and disruptive technological advancements. In a rare coincidence, humankind is faced with all these challenges at this point in time. Thus, this dissertation humbly contemplates these important questions, not only in the context of organizations and the future of work, but life in general. As artificial intelligence is applied increasingly in our lives, changing the way we live, work, and play, organizations and organizational research arrive at a juncture where their participants and members must ask: “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” If artificial intelligence is becoming as omniscient as the rational demons described in most economic research, where does it leave management and organizations as a field as well as existing organizations in the field? Perhaps a more fitting and realistic question is: “Is artificial intelligence as powerful as we imagined it to be?” Or, should we adopt a normative lens and paint a blueprint for future researchers, policy-makers, and other people in the world? Should we help navigate the relationship with machines in the inevitable applications of artificial intelligence in people’s lives? The first two chapters of this dissertation are empirical. They go deep into the technical aspects of existing artificial intelligence algorithms, and explore the limits and capabilities of artificial intelligence technology. I found that artificial intelligence tools, at the moment, are not as powerful as we imagined. Shortcut learning and biases, as well as misinterpretation of data and results, are just some of the issues I observed through my research. The last chapter attempts to answer some normative and theoretical questions. It draws upon works by pioneering researchers in both artificial and organizational intelligence research, and provides a working lens or framework for how we can make sense of the currently fragmented and noisy landscape in artificial intelligence application research. As scientific as it strives to be, this dissertation, in my opinion, should be more fittingly viewed as a faith declaration and an expression of my belief that organizations and the human members therein are bigger than the current artificial intelligence phenomenon. In declaring my faith, I hope my research contributes to a more human-centered direction of where we can go as a field in the wake of artificial intelligence technology. The dissertation will also help the organizational field will also consider the organizational element of artificial intelligence application, that is, how this technological development can be integrated as a larger organizational phenomenon.

Creator

• Wang, Dawei

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-qx5j-5e38

Subject

• Management
• Artificial intelligence
• Psychology

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• etdadmin_upload_917463
• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16159

Keyword

• Decision-making
• Organizational intelligence
• Artificial intelligence
• Algorithmic bias
• Decision bias
• Machine learning

Date created

• 2022-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright