Bots for mental health: the boundaries of human and technology agencies for enabling mental well-being within organizations

Abstract

PurposeThe importance of mental wellbeing and the need for organizations to address it is increasing in the post-pandemic context. Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being adopted in HRM functions, its adoption and utility for enabling mental wellbeing is limited. Building on the Open System Theory (OST) and adopting the technology-in-practice lens, the authors examined the roles of human and technology agencies in enabling mental wellbeing.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted in two stages; in Stage 1, the authors adopted a case methodology approach to examine the feasibility of a technology company's offerings to assess mental wellbeing. In Stage 2, the authors followed the grounded theory approach and interviewed 22 key stakeholders and HR leaders of diverse organizations. The authors used Gioia's approach to analyze the data.FindingsThe study demonstrates the interdependence and inseparability of human activity, technological capability and structured context. Specifically, the authors observe that AI adoption is pushing the boundaries of how organizations could support employees' mental health and wellbeing. These technological advancements and adoption are likely to facilitate the evolution of agentic practices, routines and structures.Research limitations/implicationsThis study carries two important implications. While the advent of cutting-edge technologies appears to affect employees' mental wellbeing, the study findings indicate the assistive role of technology in supporting mental wellbeing and facilitating changes in organizational practices. Second, the ontology of technology-in-practice shows how human–machine agencies gain newer relevance from the interactions that unite them. Specifically, per OST, technology (from an external context) can potentially change how mental wellbeing practices in organizations are managed. The authors extend the existing literature by suggesting that both human agents and internal contexts effectively limit the potential of technology agents to change existing structures significantly.Originality/valueThe authors address the need for more research on the technology-management interface, and the boundaries of technology-enabled wellbeing at work. While AI-HRM scholarship has primarily relied on micro-level psychological theories to examine impact and outcomes, the authors borrow from the macro-level theories, such as the OST and the technology-in-practice to explain how AI is shifting the boundaries of human and machine agencies for enabling mental wellbeing.

Editorial: Caring for our workers: advancing human resource management to support workforce mental health

“…government, industry associations and unions) and internal stakeholders could promote or impair employee mental health. A contextualized perspective is also reflected in other papers which investigated how technological advancement (in the external context) can bring positive implications for HRM in managing mental health issues, through the adoption of AI-based chatbots (Dutta and Mishra, 2024) and HR analytics (Lathabhavan, 2024), and in papers that tap into changing work practices as a result of COVID-19 (Silva, 2024; Wu et al , 2024). As context plays a crucial role in HRM strategy and implementation (e.g.…”

“…Lathabhavan (2024), published in this special issue, reported that HR analytics improved organizations' evidence-based management and supported the implementation of mental health support practices. Another paper published in this special issue by Dutta et al (2024) demonstrated that integrating HRM and AI enhanced the management of employee mental health and well-being (e.g. use of AI chatbots to identify mental health challenges among workers).…”

“…The third paper titled "Bots for mental health: the boundaries of human and technology agencies for enabling mental well-being within organizations" by Dutta and Mishra (2024) builds on open system theory and adopts the technology-in-practice lens, to examine the roles of human and technology agencies in supporting employee mental health. Dutta and Mishra (2024) investigate a highly contemporary topic, the adoption and utility of AI in HRM functions.…”

“…The third paper titled "Bots for mental health: the boundaries of human and technology agencies for enabling mental well-being within organizations" by Dutta and Mishra (2024) builds on open system theory and adopts the technology-in-practice lens, to examine the roles of human and technology agencies in supporting employee mental health. Dutta and Mishra (2024) investigate a highly contemporary topic, the adoption and utility of AI in HRM functions. They conduct a two-stage study using case methodology and a qualitative grounded theory approach across diverse organizations, to assess viability of human and technology agencies in evaluating and enabling the mental well-being of staff.…”

“…Thus, a holistic approach also needs future research to investigate what HRM functions and how they can synergistically interact to enhance mental health among workers. Furthermore, as demonstrated by case studies from Dutta and Mishra (2024) and Wang et al (2024) in this special issue, some organizations have started to take novel approaches that have important implications in addressing mental health challenges. We encourage more academic-practitioner dialogue so that more academic research can cast attention to these types of HRM innovations adopted by industry and develop high-level theoretical frameworks that have potential to be generalized and applied across organizations and sectors.…”