A Commentary on Wolf and Stock-Homburg (2025): Rethinking the Ethics of Robotic Management

This commentary responds to Wolf and Stock-Homburg’s (2025) study on employee acceptance of robotic lower-level managers by foregrounding ethical considerations beyond competence-based evaluations. While their findings demonstrate that moderate robotic competence enhances acceptance, this commentary argues that ethical legitimacy requires more than acceptance—it necessitates the preservation of employee autonomy and the relational dimensions of leadership. Drawing on deontological and virtue ethics, the analysis critiques the risk of “algorithmic authoritarianism” and the erosion of ethical workplace relationships. The commentary advocates for hybrid human-AI managerial models that ensure human oversight, ethical accountability, and employee engagement. It concludes with recommendations for implementation strategies and future research directions exploring the ethical and organizational impacts of such models.