Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to address a gap in the literature by conducting a systematic literature review research on current knowledge of artificial intelligence within the context of future management, with a special focus on findings related to middle-level managers. The thesis endeavors to identify the change …
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Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to address a gap in the literature by conducting a systematic literature review research on current knowledge of artificial intelligence within the context of future management, with a special focus on findings related to middle-level managers. The thesis endeavors to identify the change middle-level managers may face and whether they will be redundant in the future. The systematic literature review included 24 text papers, that were categorized into three groups: 1) Artificial intelligence in management, 2) Artificial intelligence as a replacement for the human workforce, and 3) Future of artificial intelligence. Cultural differences may have affected the results since the US has contributed the largest share of the research. The most common research methodology used was secondary data analysis, where data collected in previous studies was analyzed. Based on the results of the systematic literature review, it can be stated that the future impact on middle-level managers is unclear. The results found evidence in one paper, Atkin et al. (2017), which showed that a consequence of AI in facility management, could be that middle managers will get bypassed. Still, four papers showed a future impact on managers where their hierarchical level was not specified, meaning it was unclear whether they belonged to low-, middle-, or top-level management. Artificial intelligence in the management theme enabled a conclusion that AI technology is changing business organizations and overall managerial work. Expert systems have enabled improvements in organizational productivity, and these can be successfully used to speed up decision-making, problem-solving and improve customer service. In artificial intelligence as a replacement of human workforce theme, it was concluded that human resource managers are most likely to be affected by the technology of AI. In relation to the future of artificial intelligence theme, it was concluded that AI technology is an important and necessary tool for organizations to consider, potentially enabling organizations to thrive in the presence of considerable competition.
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