Organizational Leadership: Decision to Adopt Robotics to Augment Nursing Workforce

Background: Nursing leaders have a significant influence on job satisfaction and emotional health of their staff.¹ Leaders have a direct impact on staff productivity.² Leaders ability maintain job satisfaction has become increasingly more challenging as a lack of supportive and inclusive work environments leads to poor staff retention and long-term health related absences. ^3-4 It is essential that effective leadership be established for organizational success, especially during this dynamic era of technological innovation.⁵ With the development of robotics, drones, and artificial intelligence, there has been a proliferation of intelligent assistive technologies (IAT) that enable task completion through more efficient means⁶. Previous research has demonstrated that human decision-making is influenced by the context in which the decision occurs.⁷ The use of IAT is encompassed within the context of the decision making process. Although some researchers are examining how self-governed human decisions are and the level of external control that is unknowingly forfeited to technology,⁸ leaders willingness to engage with IAT, must first be established.

Canadians are experiencing an evolution of assistive technology expanding beyond traditional concepts of supporting those with disability⁹ to becoming an extension of human capabilities in both public and private sectors.^10-17 These forms of technology are labeled as intelligent, referring to potentially autonomous technology and devices that are capable of linking with other intelligent technologies as part of an interconnected network.¹⁸ Through these networks IAT has the ability to access and process large amounts of information and complete various tasks without the necessity of human intervention. Organizational delegation of tasks to IAT shows promise when examining from a human resource perspective (e.g., resource distribution robots, independent stocking robots, automated scheduling programs, etc.)⁶. Although, not all tasks can be augmented by nonhuman actors many can, requiring a greater understanding organizational leaders willingness to augment their workforce with IAT to stay ahead of the continuously evolving technologies and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Purpose: Researchers have begun to examine factors influencing human interaction with IAT such as trust,¹⁹ and adoption,²⁰ but there remains no measurable level to the impact these factors have on human engagement with IAT and their willingness to adopt IAT in the workplace.⁷ Managers are responsible for the operational and strategic planning of resource distribution, staff allocation and support.²¹ As technological capabilities and organizational expectations continue to evolve, so too should the role of a organizational managers.²² Operational service robots are conceivably part of a manager’s role in the next two decades.²³ Such possibilities include automatic distribution robots without human assistance; shelving robots that independently maintain stocking supplies; and, medication administration robots that monitor patients for adverse reactions. The utilization of IAT robots by nursing managers requires the delegation of task to a nonhuman entity that has the ability to complete a task and maintain standards while alleviating staff and resources.²⁴ Given the current lack of research exploring the use of IAT by organizational leadership, there remains an unexploited opportunity to enhance current leadership capabilities through IAT integration. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address the lack of understanding of what factors influence organizational leaderships’ willingness augment their workforce through the integrate of nonhuman actors.

Methods: For this study Unified Theory of Acceptance and use of Technology (UTAUT)²⁶ will be used to underpin a research study that will seek to better understand the dynamic processes influencing organizational leaders willingness to adopt nonhuman actors into the workplace through intelligent assistive technology. ^26-30 As organizational leaders must consider job performance, cost benefit analysis, feasibility requirements, and public image when implementing any new idea into an organization, UTATU accounts for these considerations through performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. A random sample of 290 coordinators and managers will be selected from large urban organizations across Ontario^31-33 and will be provided a demographic questionnaire as well as a modified version of the UTAUT self-reporting questionnaire. This will contain 20 questions in four constructs utilizing a 5-point Likert Scale. ³⁴. Past research has demonstrated the accuracy of questionnaires designed to study technological acceptance.^35-39

Results: The significance of the knowledge generated will be demonstrated in two main areas: (1) pragmatic and theoretical insights related to what variables are considered when organizational leaders choose to implement new forms of technology into the workplace for future technological, leadership training, and policy development purposes; and, (2) the findings will assist in developing the taxonomy to outline organizational leaders reasoning to accept or reject non human actors into the workplace.

Conclusion: This project will provide opportunity to generate a deeper understanding of current research regarding the decision making process of organizational leadership interacting with nonhuman actors represented through IAT. Lastly, the findings of this research will provide important recommendations for societal inclusion and ethical challenges that will benefit industry partners, and policy developers with enhanced IAT development and seamless integration of into the workplace.