AI will not revolutionize business management but it could make it worse
Retrieved on:
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
The mainstream use of AI systems is a disruptive force in a number of areas including university education, the legal system and, of course, the work world.
Key Points:
- The mainstream use of AI systems is a disruptive force in a number of areas including university education, the legal system and, of course, the work world.
- These changes are taking place at such a bewildering pace that research is struggling to keep up.
- Having worked for many years as an expert in strategic management, I will shed some distinct — but complementary — light on the sometimes dark side of organizations, i.e.
Stupid organizations
- You were (or still are) working in a stupid organization, according to science.
- company policies), unless they are regularly updated, run the risk of making an organization, itself, stupid.
- While some organizations work hard to update themselves, others, often for lack of time or in search of day-to-day convenience, maintain processes that no longer fit with the reality that the organization is facing — and they, then, become stupid.
Functional stupidity
- Functional stupidity occurs when the behaviour of managers in an organization imposes a discipline that constrains the relationship between employees, creativity and reflection.
- In a context of functional stupidity, integrating AI into the workplace would only make this situation worse.
- Take, for example, an organization that suffers from functional stupidity and that, traditionally, would assign an employee to analyzing market trends and then pass this information on to another team to set up advertising campaigns.
- We already have some examples of functional stupidity cropping up in the news; for example, in a trial, a U.S. law firm cited (with help from ChatGPT) six jurisprudence cases that simply do not exist.
Incompetent organizations
- You can complete it in an hour, but your deadline is set for the end of the day.
- If all promotions in an organization are made this way, the result is a hierarchy of incompetent people.
- The Peter principle will have even more negative effects in organizations that integrate AI.
- This skill will put them in good standing when it comes to their performance appraisal, and may even lead to promotion.
Incompetence and inefficiency
- However, the employee’s AI expertise will not enable them to meet the conflict resolution and leadership challenges that new management positions bring.
- If the new manager does not have the necessary interpersonal skills (which is often the case), then he or she is likely to suffer from “injelitance” (a combination of incompetence and jealousy) when faced with these new challenges.
- Above all, before thinking about integrating AI, managers need to ensure that their organization is not stupid (in terms of both processes and behaviour).
Guillaume Desjardins ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.