Leaders Inflate Performance Ratings for Employees Who Use Robots to Augment Their Performance

Abstract

With robot usage becoming increasingly prevalent in contemporary workplaces, a key task for supervisors is conducting performance ratings in the context of employee-robot value co-creation. In this research, we explore whether, how, and when employees' robot usage affects supervisors' performance ratings. Drawing upon attribution theory, we suggest that supervisors might overestimate the performance of employees who use robots at work. Across a pilot study, two experiments, and one field study, we find that employees' robot usage is positively associated with supervisors' illusory performance transference (i.e., supervisors' belief that robot–associated performance should be attributed to employees who use robots at work). In turn, this transference is positively associated with high performance ratings for the respective employees. Furthermore, the supervisor–perceived experience of robots (i.e., supervisors' perceptions that robots are able to feel emotions and sensations) weakens this indirect effect. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and future directions.