Engage, Motivate, Automate: Rethinking Algorithmic Leadership in Practice

The Centre for Business and Society invites you to our last research seminar of the year. Prof. Nick Butler from the University of Stockholm will visit us to talk about algorithmic leadership.

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of ‘algorithmic leadership’, a hybrid practice that outsources parts of leadership to computational process. For example, companies such as CultureAmp, Lattice, and Workday have developed digital platforms that track employee analytics and performance metrics across teams and departments. By retaining the ‘leader-in-the-loop’, such platforms promise to enhance organizational outcomes via algorithms while also maintaining an essential humanistic core – a style of leadership that is both supported by data and driven by dialogue. The academic discourse on algorithmic leadership typically revolves around three core concepts: augmentation, collaboration, and symbiosis. In light of these concepts, we are led to believe that algorithmic leadership will reap benefits for managers and their teams in terms of engagement, satisfaction, and well-being.

In this paper, we cast doubt on this positive outlook for algorithmic leadership. We do so by drawing on an empirical case study of a large Danish tech firm that has recently implemented a digital leadership platform called ‘Teamvision’ (pseudonym). The platform is meant to enable managers to initiate conversations with employees with the help of metrics rather than gut-feelings. However, our findings reveal a more complex picture than the concepts of augmentation, collaboration, and symbiosis suggest. The platform aims to enhance leadership capacities yet it often hampers dialogue and communication; it aims to inform leadership decisions yet it often obscures how employees are feeling and what they need; and it aims to promote a positive organizational culture yet it often causes uncertainty and disconnection. The task for us, as critical scholars, is to interrogate the promise of algorithmic leadership and expose its shortcomings as a theory and a practice.

Bio

Nick Butler is Professor in Business Administration at Stockholm University, Sweden. Nick researches in the field of organization studies, focusing on the sociology of work and critical perspectives on management. He is particularly interested in the fusion of social theory, philosophy, qualitative methods, and interpretive analysis. Nick is currently working on a project about algorithmic leadership. The project examines the development and application of digital leadership tools in high performance organizations. Nick also writes on other topics including generative AI, workplace gamification, research ethics, stand-up comedy, and the philosophy of jokes.

Venue

ARU Cambridge, LAB 322 and online via MS Teams.