New report reveals the impact of a culture of harsh criticism and hollow praise
The performance culture in Southeast Asian workplaces is giving rise to a group of "robot employees" who are less likely to thrive in the era of artificial intelligence, according to a new report.
"Robot employees" are workers who are more confident in carrying out instructions than innovating at work. They rely on safe and reliable execution more than demonstrating the innovative qualities that employers want from them.
A new report from Omni HR and TalentKraft said this behaviour is demonstrated by workers in Southeast Asia, where there is a significant 30% difference in their confidence level between their delivery and execution, as well as innovation and influence.
Consequence of poor performance culture at work
"Robot employees" are the direct consequence of poor performance culture in Southeast Asian workplaces, according to the report.
Particularly, the report blamed the rise of these workers to the "tiger boss," which it defined as a manager who is harsh with mistakes and stingy with praise.
With this "tiger boss" behaviour in workplaces, employees are then forced to keep their head down and gradually disengage at work.
"This is the robot employee consequence. In a culture that punishes mistakes without rewarding genuine progress, the rational response is to keep your head down and do just enough. Stop taking risks. Stop volunteering ideas. Stop trying to influence beyond your immediate role," the report read.
The rise of "robot employees" also comes as employees are left without any direction on how to grow in their organisation despite high expectations from "tiger bosses."
According to the report, only around two-thirds of employees feel their manager adequately coaches and mentors them. Organisational support for career development is even worse.
"A manager who criticises mistakes without offering a way to fix them — and praises good work without explaining what made it good — leaves employees with no actionable direction. Over time, that ambiguity not only frustrates people, it changes how they behave," the report read.
Innovation is crucial in AI era
The report argued that it is a risk having "robot employees" in the AI era, which demands employees who are innovative over those that just follow instructions.
"We're seeing organisations across the region ask their people to be more innovative and more agile, right as AI reshapes what a job even looks like," said Brian Ip, CEO of Omni HR.
"But you cannot build that kind of workforce with a performance review process that only shows up once a year and only tells people what went wrong."
According to the report, employers should invest in their managers and train them on how to provide quality feedback, as well as also make performance conversations a regular habit instead of an annual checkbox.
It also urged organisations to foster psychological safety at work to allow employees to innovate without fear of being punished, while also clearly defining behaviours and qualities that are needed from them.
"If we want employees who take risks and bring new ideas forward, we have to build systems that actually coach them there," Ip said.
