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Empathy: an ethical consideration of AI & others in the workplace

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Abstract

Empathy is a specific moral aspect of human behavior. The global workplace, and thereby a consideration of employee stakeholders, includes unique behavioral and ethical considerations, including a consideration of human empathy. Further, the human aspects of workplaces are within the domain of human resources and managerial oversight in business organizations. As such, human emotions and interactions are complicated by daily work related expectations, employee/employer interactions and work practices, and the outcomes of employees’ work routines. Business ethics, human resources, and risk management practices are endemic aspects within workplaces. Increasingly, the understanding of models of AI-reliant business practices underscores the need for the consideration of the ethical aspects of AI impacts on employees in the workplace. This paper explores a systematic ethical lens of the opportunities and the risks of AI ideation, development, and deployment in business-employee relations practices beyond a compliance mindset, and that introduces a further set of workplace considerations. Empathy is concerned with human intentions. As such, attributive ethical indications of the role of AI in the workplace and its impacts on employees is necessary. Moreover, this paper uses a cognitive lens of empathy and focuses on artificial morality related to the ethical concerns, implications, and practices of AI development, deployment, and workplace practices that may impact employees in a variety of business aspects.

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Notes

  1. The American Psychiatric Association proposes diagnostic criteria for identifying Narcissist Personality Disorder, one of which is “characteristic difficulties” in empathy: “impaired ability to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others; excessively attuned to reactions of others, but only if perceived as relevant to self; over- or underestimate of own effect on others.” Cf. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) (Washington, DC/London: American Psychiatric Association Publishing, 2013), “Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders,” Narcissistic Personality Disorder, p. 767. Cited as DSM-5.

  2. Classic works on narcissism and impaired empathy are Kernberg 1975 and Kohut 1971, esp. chapter 12; influential works on impaired empathy and concomitant harms are Hirigoyen 1998 and Röhr 2005.

  3. Kant’s works, the standard Akademie-Ausgabe (Academy Edition) in 23 volumes, are electronically available through korpora.org at the Philosophy Department of Duisburg University; cf. https://korpora.zim.uni-duisburg-essen.de/Kant/main.html#h-1.1. The word Gefühl, “feeling,” for instance, appears nearly 2,000 times in the works, but words for empathy, such as Empathie, Einfühlung and einfühlen, are missing. Cf. https://korpora.zim.uni-duisburg-essen.de/Kant/suche.html.

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    Denise Kleinrichert

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Kleinrichert, D. Empathy: an ethical consideration of AI & others in the workplace. AI & Soc (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01831-w

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