The Mediating Role of Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence in the Effect of Transformational Leadership on Performance Perception

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to examine the mediating role of attitudes toward artificial intelligence in the relationship between transformational leadership and perceived employee performance. In today's rapidly advancing digital transformation era, leadership styles have become increasingly influential in shaping employees' attitudes toward technological innovations and their job performance. In this context, the study seeks to reveal how transformational leadership contributes to the development of employees' attitudes toward artificial intelligence technologies and how these attitudes affect their performance perceptions.

Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted with 340 healthcare employees working at a state hospital in Afyonkarahisar. A questionnaire was used as the data collection tool, comprising three scales: the "Transformational Leadership Scale", the "General Attitude Toward Artificial Intelligence Scale", and the "Employee Performance Scale". Mediation was tested using the "Process Macro Program" developed by Hayes (2013), running on SPSS 25.0.

Findings – The findings showed that both negative and positive attitudes toward artificial intelligence had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and perceived employee performance. The indirect effect of positive attitude toward artificial intelligence (β=0.1733; 95% CI [0.0835; 0.3062]) was found to be stronger than that of negative attitude. In addition, negative attitude toward artificial intelligence was also found to have a significant partial mediating effect (β=0.0694; 95% CI [0.0106; 0.1667]).

Discussion – This study reveals that technological transformation in the healthcare sector is not limited to a purely technical process but also involves psychological and cultural dimensions. For the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into healthcare service delivery to succeed, employees' perceptions of these systems must be transformed, and managerial leadership approaches must be shaped in strategic alignment with this transformation. In this context, it is critically important for managers to integrate trust-based, participatory, and supportive practices into the organizational structure.