That honey, my arsenic: The influence of advanced technologies on service employees’ organizational deviance

Although advanced technologies represent extraordinary opportunities for service organizations, research has come to the fore warning of their negative effects on service employees. Drawing on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, this study aims to examine the influence of STARA (Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Algorithms) awareness on service employees’ organizational deviance through psychological contract breach, with this path moderated by industrial relations climate. Using a three-wave data from 359 employees in various Chinese service industries, the results indicated that STARA awareness had a positive impact on psychological contract breach, which in turn triggered organizational deviance. Industrial relations climate was an effective remedy in alleviating the positive association between STARA awareness, psychological contract breach, and organizational deviance. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the “downside” of STARA by illustrating organizational deviance as an outcome. It offers insights into how STARA awareness influences employees’ misbehaviors by adding an employee-organization relationship (i.e., psychological contract breach) perspective and advances our knowledge of a potential safeguard (i.e., industrial relations climate) that organizations can employ to minimize the negative consequences of STARA awareness.