Rethinking How We Theorize AI in Organization and Management: A Problematizing Review of Rationality and Anthropomorphism

Laavanya Ramaul, Paavo Ritala, Angelos Kostis and Päivi Aaltonen

Journal of Management Studies, 2026, vol. 63, issue 2, 761-807

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) has long held the promise of imitating, replacing, or even surpassing human intelligence. Now that the abilities of AI systems have started to approach this initial aspiration, organization and management scholars face a challenge in how to theorize this technology, which potentially changes the way we view technology: not as a tool, but as something that enters previously human‐only domains. To navigate this theorizing challenge, we adopt the problematizing review method by engaging in a selective and critical reading of the theoretical contributions regarding AI, in the most influential organization and management journals. We examine how the literature has grounded itself with AI as the root metaphor and what field assumptions about AI are shared – or contested – in the field. We uncover two core assumptions of rationality and anthropomorphism, around which fruitful debates are already emerging. We discuss these two assumptions and their organizational boundary conditions in the context of theorizing AI. Finally, we invite scholars to build distinctive organization and management theory scaffolding within the broader social science of AI.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:63:y:2026:i:2:p:761-807

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