The impetuous advances and use of Artificial Intelligence Technology(AIT) has emerged as a transformative wave with the potential to revolutionize various aspects of organizations’ reality.To navigate the complexities of AIT, the concern of leaders exhibiting AI-oriented changes is more like a one-way path.Thus, organizational scholars have recently advocated that leaders’ AI-oriented change behaviors constitute an essential resource in any organization pursuing innovation and competitiveness. However, recent evidence has challenged the conventional thinking that such behaviors are universally and necessarily positive under all conditions.

The novelty of this study lies in its concern on teachers’ unethical behavior working in a digital transformation context, delving deeper into uncovering the underlying root cause behind this crucial theme and how to mitigate it. We argue that a head-teacher plays a critical role as a precursor to unethical behavior and draw on Affective Events Theory (AET) as well as psychological ownership theory to examine the impact of head-teachers’ Artificial Intelligence (AI)-oriented change behavior on teachers’ unethical conduct via the mediating role of teachers’ perceived stress. Moreover, this study also explores the moderating role of teachers’ optimism about the future between head-teachers’ Artificial Intelligence (AI)-oriented change behavior and teachers’ perceived stress.

The data was collected using self-report survey questionnaires from 208 teachers undergoing AI-oriented changes working in different public and private schools. Results of structural equation modeling supported our contention and verifyied that the level of the indirect impact of head-teachers’ Artificial Intelligence (AI)-oriented change behavior on teachers’ unethical behavior through perceived stress is dependent upon the influence of teachers’ optimism about the future. We also found that the positive impact of head-teachers’ Artificial Intelligence (AI)-oriented change behavior on teachers’ unethical behavior through teachers’ perceived stress decrease as teachers’ optimism about the future increase.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence (AI)-oriented change behavior, unethical behavior, perceived stress, optimism about the future, Greece.