Neurophysiological Leadership Lab, Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Management, Munich, Germany.
Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 16;18(2):e0281786. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281786. eCollection 2023.
Human-robot interaction research has shown that social robots can interact with humans in complex social situations and display leadership-related behaviors. Therefore, social robots could be able to take on leadership roles. The aim of our study was to investigate human followers' perceptions and reactions towards robot leadership behavior, and differences based on the robot's displayed leadership style. We implemented a robot to show either a transformational or a transactional leadership style in its speech and its movements. We presented the robot to university and executive MBA students (N = 29) and subsequently conducted semi-structured interviews and group discussions. The results of explorative coding indicated that participants differed in their perceptions and reactions based on the robot's leadership style and based on their assumptions about robots in general. We observed that participants quickly imagined either a utopia or worried about a dystopia, depending on the robot's leadership style and their assumptions, and that a subsequent reflection led to more nuanced views. We discuss the implications and recommendations for human-robot interaction and leadership research.
人机交互研究表明，社交机器人可以在复杂的社会情境中与人类互动，并表现出与领导相关的行为。因此，社交机器人可以承担领导角色。我们的研究旨在调查人类跟随者对机器人领导行为的看法和反应，以及基于机器人所表现出的领导风格的差异。我们实现了一个机器人，使其在语言和动作中表现出变革型或交易型领导风格。我们向大学和行政工商管理硕士学生（N=29）展示了这个机器人，然后进行了半结构化访谈和小组讨论。探索性编码的结果表明，参与者根据机器人的领导风格以及他们对机器人的一般假设，在看法和反应上存在差异。我们观察到，参与者根据机器人的领导风格和他们的假设，很快就想象出了一个乌托邦或担心一个反乌托邦，而随后的反思导致了更细致入微的观点。我们讨论了对人机交互和领导研究的影响和建议。
