Impact of AI ethics on school administrators’ decision-making: the role of sustainable leadership behaviors and diversity management skills

This study is grounded in decision-making theory, which explains how various cognitive and external factors shape leaders’ decision-making styles. Introducing new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies into schools has transformed leadership practices. By relying on their perspectives and understanding of ethics in AI, educational leaders incorporate it into their managerial tasks, including decision-making. The decision-making styles (DMS) of educational managers, representing the response pattern demonstrated by a manager in a decision-making situation, may be influenced by various factors, including attitudes toward the ethics of artificial intelligence (AT-EAI). However, the question arises of whether sustainable leadership behaviors (SLB) and diversity management skills (DMS) can mediate this relationship. Due to the gap in scholarly discussions, this study aimed to determine the mediating role of SLB and DMS in the relationship between AT-EAI and the decision-making styles of middle and high school managers. We used confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and model fit indexes to address the study’s aims. Of 447 participants, 191 were female (42.8%) and participated in the current study. The results indicated that AT-EAI had a significant positive effect on Rational decision-making style (RDMS), Intuitive decision-making style (IDMS), and Dependent decision-making style (DDMS) (p < .001) and a significant negative effect on Avoidant decision-making style (ADMS) and Spontaneous decision-making style (SDMS) (p < .001). Furthermore, AT-EAI indirectly influenced RDMS, IDMS, and SDMS through SLB and DMS. These findings suggested that training educational leaders to improve their attitudes toward AI ethics while enhancing their sustainable leadership and diversity management skills can lead to more effective and ethical decision-making in schools.