Developing a master’s thesis through DIG Deeper
With support from the DIG Deeper program, Markus Rognan Bjørneklett and Philip Hodne turned a broad interest in AI into a focused and testable master’s thesis.
When Bjørneklett and Hodne decided to write their master’s thesis on AI and the workplace, they knew what they were interested in, but not yet exactly what they wanted to investigate. Through DIG Deeper, they gained access to researchers, funding and practical support that helped them turn a broad idea into an empirical research project.
“We started with a much broader and more loosely defined research question, and through discussions we eventually arrived at something that could actually be tested empirically within a single semester,” Bjørneklett and Hodne state.
Investigating how employees respond to AI
The discussions eventually led Bjørneklett and Hodne to investigate how employees respond when AI becomes capable of performing parts of their job.
“We had come across the claim that having a growth mindset, or the way employees think about change, is what determines whether an organization succeeds with AI. But we found surprisingly little research that had actually tested this assumption.”
To investigate this, they classified 152 employees as having either a growth or fixed mindset and showed them real videos of AI performing their core work tasks from start to finish. They then measured how the employees reacted and what they intended to do in response. Their findings challenged their initial expectations. Mindset explained relatively little. Instead, whether employees felt they had the ability and resources to cope with the change appeared to play a more important role.
Perhaps the most interesting finding, however, came from the participants’ written responses. A significant share of those who said they would actively seek out and adopt AI were motivated not by enthusiasm, but by a desire to avoid losing their jobs.
“If AI rollouts are measured solely by adoption rates, we capture behavior but not the motivation behind it. Whether that motivation matters over time, for employee well-being or for who chooses to stay with the organization, we do not yet know. And that is precisely why it is worth investigating.”
Beyond the research question
DIG Deeper supported the students beyond the development of their research question. Through the program, Bjørneklett and Hodne received a grant that helped make it possible to conduct the study with actual participants. They also received practical guidance with the data collection process.
“We underestimated how time-consuming it would be to recruit respondents from specific occupational groups. The support we received was crucial in enabling us to complete the study.”
For other master’s students considering DIG Deeper, their advice is clear.
“Do it. And come prepared. What you get out of the program depends on how much you put into it. Be open to the possibility that feedback may overturn some of your assumptions early in the process. It can feel difficult at the time, but it is much better than discovering the same problem later in the process.”