Purpose This study aims to investigate how and when hindrance and challenge artificial intelligence (AI) awareness interact to shape workplace cheating behavior (WCB) in the hospitality industry by examining the mediating role of self-concern and the moderating role of narcissism. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage survey was conducted on 208 hotel employees. The hypotheses were tested using a hierarchical regression and bias-corrected bootstrapping. Findings The findings reveal that the interaction between hindrance and challenge AI awareness increases employees’ self-concern, which in turn promotes WCB. Furthermore, narcissism weakens the positive effect of the interaction between hindrance and challenge AI awareness on self-concern and its indirect impact on WCB. Practical implications The findings offer insights for hotel managers to curb WCB during AI adoption by strengthening AI-enabled workflow design and HR interventions that reduce employees’ self-protection motives and by tailoring change support for individual differences such as narcissism. Originality/value WCB is a harmful form of unethical conduct that can damage service quality and organizational performance, yet little is known about how emerging technologies such as AI shape it. This study advances the understanding of how AI-induced stressors and personality traits shape unethical behavior and provides practical insights for managing hotel employees during AI adoption.
Cai et al. (Thu,) studied this question.