The impact of perceived algorithmic management on employees' physical and mental health: a chain mediation analysis of frustrated work autonomy and workplace AI replacement anxiety
Zheng Ma, Xingzi Chen, Binhua Jing · 2026
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Description
Ma, Chen, and Jing studied how managing workers by algorithm affects their health, in a paper published in 2026. As software assigns tasks, tracks pace, and scores output, many workers feel managed by a system rather than a person. The authors treat that feeling as a new workplace health hazard. They surveyed 338 employees across several industries in China who work under such management. Questionnaires measured the management pressure, health, and two middle factors.
The middle factors were frustrated autonomy, the sense of having no say, and anxiety about being replaced by AI. The analysis traced a chain: algorithmic control erodes autonomy, which feeds replacement anxiety, which in turn tracks with worse physical and mental health. Naming the chain matters for remedies. Giving workers more say may break the first link, before anxiety and illness follow.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zheng Ma, Xingzi Chen, Binhua Jing |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 82 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |