"Religion, Altruism, and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Perspectives," by Nicoleta Acatrinei
This presentation is a further development of the conference paper Acatrinei, N. 2018. "Altruism, AI and SDGs: a triple alignment to stay on course in the delivery of public services," IDHEAP & IIAS International Conference. Conference paper. Lausanne, Switzerland, pp. 1-21.
Employees' motivation and performance are crucial in the efficient delivery of public services; hence, it becomes a high priority goal for governments worldwide. Understanding the underlining factors affecting civil servants' work motivation is critical more than ever as budgetary constraints are paramount due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Another impact of this pandemic is the extensive adoption of digital technologies in organizing remote work and redesigning for safety purpose job content and tasks whenever remote work is impossible.
Therefore, the main question is: how do we motivate employees in the delivery of public services?
Three main factors are interacting: public service motivation, artificial intelligence, and religion/spirituality based values and behaviors. The COVID-19 pandemic is exponentially accelerating the need to align these three factors. On the one side, employees' engagement and well-being at work are high-stake priorities of the government. On the other side, the extensive and rapid adoption and implementation of digital transformation is a sinequanon condition in pandemic times to design remote work and new safety protocols for employees and the beneficiary of public services.
I show that aligning the motivation to serve a mission beyond self-interest with the positive impact that religious/spiritual beliefs on well-being have in the digital transformation context may lead to efficient public service delivery.
To quote this presentation: Acatrinei, N. 2019. Religion, Altruism, and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Perspectives, Doha Institute & IIAS International Conference. Conference paper. Doha, Qatar, pp. 1-27 (first version 2018, at IIAS International Conference, Switzerland).