Dual Effects of AI Enabled Job Non-Routinization on Proactive and Responsive Creativity

AI enabled job non-routinization (AI-JN) focuses the extent to which tasks involving higher level of problem-solving, higher degree of uncertainty and fewer set procedures when AI automates some repetitive and modularized aspects of tasks. It is unclear, however, whether AI-JN serves as a catalyst or an impediment to employee creativity. Our research aims to address this issue by theorizing that employees’ responses to AI-JN are influenced by how AI-JN is appraised, and these appraisals can have different implications for creativity. Drawing from transactional theory of stress, we (a) distinguish the consequences of AI-JN for proactive versus responsive creativity through different appraisals (i.e., challenge and hindrance appraisals) and (b) introduce the moderating role of tacit knowledge awareness (TKA) as a key personal resource in the stress appraisals process. Results from an online study and a field study revealed that AI-JN induced challenge appraisals and further led to proactive creativity, whereas hindrance appraisals of AI-JN resulted in responsive creativity. We further found that employees with higher TKA were likely to regard AI-JN as more challenging and less hindering, which led them to engage in proactive creativity or responsive creativity. We discuss future research directions and provide several practical implications for both organizational leaders and human resource (HR) practitioners.