Abstract
The Impact of AI Technology Adoption on Transformational Leadership Leadership and Organizational Performance
-Focusing on Vocational High Schools-
SeoKyeong University Graduate School
Department of Business Administration
Cho Yoo-hyun
Thi...
Abstract
The Impact of AI Technology Adoption on Transformational Leadership Leadership and Organizational Performance
-Focusing on Vocational High Schools-
SeoKyeong University Graduate School
Department of Business Administration
Cho Yoo-hyun
This study was conducted to comprehensively investigate how the introduction of AI technology impacts school administrators' transformational leadership and teachers' psychological and organizational outcomes, amidst the rapid proliferation of AI technology in school organizations. Vocational high schools, in particular, were selected as the subjects of this study because they are educational institutions directly impacted by industrial changes and technological innovation, where the effects of AI adoption are clearly manifested in organizational operation and teachers' job experiences. While existing research has individually addressed AI utilization, leadership, and job experience, the structural relationships among these elements within school organizations have not been sufficiently elucidated. Therefore, this study proposed a causal structure among the level of AI technology adoption, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment as a single analytical framework.
The study empirically analyzed the effects of AI technology adoption on teachers' work environment and organizational performance. Although AI technology offers benefits such as improved work efficiency and enhanced teaching and learning support, its introduction also brings new psychological strains, including difficulties in adapting to new work processes and the burden of redefining the teacher's role. Therefore, this study considered that the effectiveness of technology adoption might be determined more by the level of organizational support and members' perceptions than by the technology itself.
Furthermore, we focused on idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and individualized consideration – sub-factors of transformational leadership – as key mediating factors connecting technology adoption and organizational outcomes. Idealized influence provides a basis for teachers to trust the purpose and direction of technological change, while inspirational motivation helps members internalize the meaning of organizational change. Individualized consideration encourages the exploration of new teaching-learning methods and work approaches during the change process, transforming technological innovation into an organizational learning culture. These factors are likely to play crucial mediating roles in the process by which AI adoption leads to teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
A survey was conducted targeting principals, vice-principals, and teachers from 30 vocational high schools nationwide, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The level of AI technology adoption was measured based on technological and environmental factors, while transformational leadership was assessed using two dimensions: idealized influence, and inspirational motivation and individualized consideration.
The analysis yielded several key findings: First, AI technology adoption was found to significantly influence teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This indicates that the level of AI technology adoption should be treated not merely as an issue of facilities and equipment, but as a critical independent variable explaining teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Second, the sub-factors of transformational leadership significantly mediated the relationship between AI technology adoption and teacher outcomes. Specifically, idealized influence played a crucial role in clarifying the purpose of technological change and enhancing emotional stability.
Third, inspirational motivation and individualized consideration acted as pathways that promoted teachers' active participation in technology-driven changes, thereby reinforcing job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Therefore, this study can be seen as providing another integrated model for research on school organizations in the AI era, by demonstrating that the effects of AI technology adoption operate within a structural path of technological/environmental factors → transformational leadership → organizational outcomes. It also presented detailed patterns indicating that technological factors are fully mediated by leadership, while environmental factors exhibit a mix of full and partial mediation.
Practically, the findings confirm that for technological factors, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are entirely mediated by transformational leadership. This suggests that simply introducing AI equipment and systems is insufficient; concurrent development of administrators' leadership (vision presentation, role modeling, communication, and support) alongside AI budget and equipment expansion is essential. Moreover, environmental support policies can be maximized when combined with "leadership support." Although environmental factors have a direct positive effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, their impact is amplified through full or partial mediation when inspirational motivation and individualized consideration leadership are added. This indicates the necessity of considering "leadership indicators" alongside AI adoption policies during evaluation.
Consequently, the results of this study highlight that the level of transformational leadership among school administrators is a critical determinant of AI adoption outcomes. Therefore, leadership indicators must be indispensably included in future policy and research. These findings also reconfirm the mediating and amplifying roles of transformational leadership in the novel context of AI adoption, providing important evidence for the design of AI and digital transformation policies in specialized and vocational high schools, as well as for the development of school leadership training programs.
Keywords: AI technology adoption, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, vocational high schools, structural equation modeling(SEM)