Publications
2025
To be (safe), or not to be (safe)? A daily exploration of why and when gig workers stay safe under customer demands
Authorship: Jinghao Zhang*, Jiaxin Xue*, Yingxin Deng, Zongbo Li, Yuhui Li ; *equal contribution
Abstract: Gig workers in the food delivery industry constantly face life-threatening occupational safety risks. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the hazards of this work that entail potential dangers in traffic situations. Drawing on paradox theory, we theorize a typical tension in the daily experiences of food delivery workers, the finance–safety paradox. We examine how this dilemma can be triggered by customer demands that could influence delivery workers’ safety (i.e., safety behavior and driving speed) through altering their finance and safety concerns. Using the experience sampling method, we conducted a 14-day diary study with 117 food delivery workers (1430 observations) in China. The results indicate that daily customer demands increased workers’ daily safety concern when workers perceived stronger algorithmic supervision and fewer algorithmic errors on the focal day. Higher daily safety concern resulted in increased daily safety behavior and lower daily driving speed, while higher daily finance concern enhanced daily driving speed. Our research identifies a key driver of safety risks for gig workers in the food delivery industry, elucidates the role of algorithms in their safety compliance, and broadens our knowledge of how they navigate the salient tension between financial precarity and safety risks.
Journal: Journal of Organizational Behavior.
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Ups and downs in serving us: Servant leadership behavior variability weakens the benefit of servant leadership behavior
Authorship: Jinghao Zhang, Niannian Dong, Lijing Zhao, Jiaxin Xue, Jia(Jasmine) Hu
Abstract: Despite abundant research on servant leadership, the existing focus predominantly adopted a between-person approach, without considering the within-person dynamism of servant leadership behavior across time. The present research aims to refine this status quo by taking a more nuanced perspective on the dynamic feature of servant leadership behavior. Specifically, we introduce the notion of servant leadership behavior variability to capture the instability of servant leadership behaviors over time. Drawing on adaptation level theory and attachment theory, we propose that the impact of servant leadership behavior on follower outcomes depends on servant leadership behavior variability. Four studies were conducted to identify this nuanced phenomenon and examine our hypotheses. In Study 1, we preliminarily explored the prevalence of servant leadership behavior variability in working contexts. Across two diary studies (Study 2–3), we consistently found that the positive effect of daily servant leadership behavior on follower’s outcomes was weakened by servant leadership behavior variability. In Study 4, we conducted a vignette-based experiment to establish the causality. Our research sheds lights on the dynamic nature of servant leadership behavior and reveal its temporal impact on followers.
Journal: Group & Organization Management.
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Impact of different employee-AI interaction: Instrumental vs. emotional support and gender differences
Authorship: Jiaying Chen, Jiaxin Xue, Yuhui Li, Wenhao Luo
Abstract: Previous studies have shown that employee–AI interactions increase job insecurity and negative behaviors, mainly due to AI’s focus on task assistance while neglecting its role in emotional support. We categorize employee–AI interactions into two types: using AI for emotional support and using AI for instrumental support. We further differentiate their impact on job insecurity and knowledge hiding. Results from a multi-wave survey involving 495 participants showed that using AI for instrumental support increases job insecurity, subsequently leading to knowledge hiding, while using AI for emotional support reduces these detrimental effects. Furthermore, the mitigating effect of emotional support on job insecurity and knowledge hiding is more pronounced for women than men. No gender differences were found in the impact of instrumental support. Our study contributes to the human–AI interaction literature by exploring how the nature of AI interactions influences workplace behavior.
Journal: International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction.
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人工智能情感支持如何重塑员工人际关系——基于自我概念的视角
Authorship: 陈佳颖, 薛嘉欣, 李育辉
Abstract: 随着人工智能情感功能不断发展，员工向人工智能寻求情感支持的现象日益增多，这将会对工作场所人际行为产生深远影响。然而，相比于对工作行为和结果的广泛关注，关于人工智能如何影响员工人际关系的研究，尤其是从人工智能情感支持视角出发的探讨非常有限。基于自我概念理论，通过采取三时点的问卷调查方法，对440名员工数据进行分析，探讨了人工智能情感支持如何影响员工关系重塑。研究结果显示：人工智能情感支持通过促进员工的关系反思，进而提高了关系重塑。外倾性强化了人工智能情感支持对关系反思的正向作用，同时强化了关系反思在人工智能情感支持和关系重塑间的中介作用。基于上述发现，企业应该重视人工智能情感功能对于工作场所的潜在影响，并结合员工的个体差异，有效规划人工智能情感支持的应用布局，以发挥人工智能对工作场所人际关系的积极作用。
Journal: 当代财经.
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2020
Environmentally specific transformational leadership and employee’s pro-environmental behavior: The mediating roles of environmental passion and autonomous motivation
Authorship: Zongbo Li, Jiaxin Xue, Rui Li, Hong Chen, Tingting Wang
Abstract: Organizational management practices in promoting sustainable development of the ecological environment are becoming a crucial way for enterprises to gain competitive advantages. However, whether the goal of such practices can be achieved depends on employees’ perception of environmental problems and the way they act. Therefore, it is important to stimulate employees’ pro-environment behaviors through management activities. Building on affective events theory and self-determination theory, we examined the effect of environmentally specific transformational leadership on employees’ pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), as well as the potential mediating effects of environmental passion and autonomous motivation. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 214 employees in China. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the theory-driven models. The results showed that environmentally specific transformational leadership positively predicted employees’ PEBs, and that environmental passion and autonomous motivation mediated this relationship, respectively. Furthermore, multiple-mediating testing results showed that environmental passion and autonomous motivation played sequential mediating roles in the link of environmentally specific transformational leadership to PEBs. This research unveiled environmental passion and autonomous motivation as underlying mechanisms that accounted for the link between transformational leadership and PEBs.
Journal: Frontiers in Psychology.
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