About
What happens when your manager is an algorithm?
This is no longer a hypothetical. AI is increasingly making decisions that used to belong to human managers: who gets hired, how work gets assigned, whose performance gets flagged. I study how employees respond to this shift. Why do some people trust an AI's judgment while others push back? And what can organizations do to make the transition work for everyone involved?
I study these questions through laboratory experiments and field studies. What I have found is that the capability of the technology is only part of the story. Whether people trust and accept AI as a manager also depends on how it is introduced and what role people still play.
I care about a future of work where, as decisions move from people to machines, the people are still there, still heard, and still whole.
Education
Service
- Student Representative, Committee of Postgraduate Studies (CPS), 2025/26
- Student Representative, HKUST AI & Education Steering Committee
Reviewer
- Nature Scientific Reports
- Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
- Journal of Trust Research
- Journal of Business Ethics
- British Journal of Social Psychology
Research
Publications
- Li, M., Bitterly, T. B., Nason, S. W., & Cheung, C. (2026). AI and negotiation: The Silicon-Carbon Communication Orientation (SILCCO) framework for understanding technology-mediated negotiation. Current Opinion in Psychology. Conditional acceptance
- Li, M., & Bitterly, T. B. (2025). AI managers may be efficient, but do workers trust them? HKUST Business Review.
- Li, M., & Bitterly, T. B. (2024). How perceived lack of benevolence harms trust of artificial intelligence management. Journal of Applied Psychology, 109(11), 1794–1816. DOI ↗
- Cai, D., Wang, H., Yao, L., Li, M., & Men, C. (2022). A relational identification perspective on why and when servant leadership fosters employees' extra-role customer service. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 43(5), 705–718. DOI ↗
- Cai, D., Liu, J., Zhao, H., & Li, M. (2020). Could social media help in newcomers' socialization? The moderating effect of newcomers' utilitarian motivation. Computers in Human Behavior, 107, 106273. DOI ↗
- Cai, D., Yu, M., Li, M., & Cui, M. (2018). Handu Group: Continued growth through business model innovation. Ivey Publishing.
Working papers
- Bitterly, T. B., Li, M., Kang, P., & Schweitzer, M. E. The framing of power. Under review at Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
- Li, M., Bitterly, T. B., & Nason, S. W. How AI framing and level of AI involvement influence trust. Submitted to PNAS
- Li, M., Bitterly, T. B., & Hagmann, D. Distrust despite human oversight: AI assistance undermines trust in feedback. Submitted to Psychological Science
- Li, M., & Bitterly, T. B. Silicon-Carbon Communication Orientation (SICCO), emotional connection and economic transfer. In preparation for Management Science
- Li, M., Choi, J. M., Bitterly, T. B., & Chao, M. M. When expectations shatter: Investigating integrity erosion in human and AI decision-makers after trust violations. Data collection in progress
- Wong, K. F. E., Kwong, J. Y., Cai, Y., Chen, Z., & Li, M. Nudging and promoting employee green behaviors via escalation of commitment. Data collection in progress
Teaching
I am interested in teaching courses focused on Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, Leadership, and Negotiations at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Instructor
- MGMT1110 Introduction to Management
HKUST Business School · Undergraduate · Summer 2024 · 1 section
Teaching assistant
- Corporate Strategy
HKUST Business School · Instructor: Eunyoung Park · Spring 2024 - Introduction to Management
HKUST Business School · Instructor: Pavel I. Zhelyazkov · Fall 2023