Encouraging or offending? The dual effects of leader comparison of intergenerational AI skills on older employees’ intergenerational relationships

With the deep penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the workplace, leaders’ AI-related social comparative behaviors are increasingly prevalent. Most of the existing studies focus on the leaders’ AI symbolization and human-computer comparison behavior, but pay little attention to the leader comparison of AI skills from different intergenerational perspectives, especially the emotional reactions and intergenerational consequences of older employees. Drawing upon the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion, this paper reveals the dual-path effect of leader comparison of intergenerational AI skills on older employees’ emotion and intergenerational relationships through a scenario-based experiment (Study 1) and a multi-stage questionnaire survey (Study 2). The results show that under the high harmful motivation, leader comparison of intergenerational AI skills will stimulate anger, which leads to intergenerational fracture (knowledge hiding and social undermining); under the high facilitative motivation, this comparison will lead to anxiety and then hinder intergenerational collaboration (AI knowledge acquisition and resource contribution), and the indirect effect becomes positive when the facilitating motivation is low. This study expands the theoretical research on leader comparative behavior and intergenerational relationships and provides practical guidance for intergenerational management and successful aging under organizational AI change.