Does artificial intelligence (AI) awareness affect employees in giving a voice to their organization? A cross-level model

The emergence of AI has significantly influenced employees within the hospitality sector, and this impact has been a highly debated topic. Utilizing the framework provided by the conservation of resources theory (COR theory), this research constructed a three-pathway approach to elucidate the role of AI awareness on voice behavior. Utilizing 319 hotel employees from four first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) in China as study participants, the results indicated that (1) AI awareness promoted employees' voice behavior; (2) learning orientation and supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) acted as mediating variables between AI awareness and voice behavior; and (3) when the perceived organizational support (POS) level is high, the direct and indirect effects (via learning orientation) of AI awareness on voice behavior were stronger, nevertheless, in this case, the effect of AI awareness on voice behavior via SSG was poor. This paper offers valuable insights and guides future research. •AI awareness promoted employees' voice behavior.•Learning orientation and supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) significantly mediated the relationship between AI awareness and employees' voice behavior.•Perceived organizational support (POS) was a significant moderating variable between AI awareness's direct and indirect effects on voice behavior.