Highlights

• The study identifies moral rumination as the key cognitive mechanism linking ethical concerns about the use of generative AI to declines in employees’ innovative and ethical voice behaviors.
• It introduces AI‑supported autonomy as a boundary condition that weakens the moral rumination triggered by ethical perceptions of AI use.

• It employs a mixed-methods approach (i.e. combining an experiment and a three-wave field survey) to validate the proposed ethical pathway robustly.

Summary

This research investigates the impact of employees’ ethical concerns regarding the use of generative AI (GAI) on their work behaviors, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Drawing on cognitive rumination theory, the study demonstrates that ethical perceptions of GAI use can prompt moral rumination, which negatively affects both service innovation and ethical voice behavior.

Importantly, it finds that AI-supported autonomy (i.e. employees’ perceived control over AI-related tasks) reduces the extent of these adverse effects. Using both experimental and field survey methods, the authors confirm that moral rumination mediates the relationship between ethical perceptions of GAI and work outcomes, and that levels of AI-supported autonomy moderate this mediation effect.

The findings suggest that increasing employees’ autonomy in using AI can help organizations manage ethical concerns and promote more positive employee behaviors.

Jing Yi Bai, IpKin Anthony Wong, Tzung Cheng T.C. Huan, Fevzi Okumus, Aliana Man Wai Leong (2025), Ethical perceptions of generative AI use and employee work outcomes: Role of moral rumination and AI-supported autonomy, Tourism Management, 111, 105242, doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2025.105242.