Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Workplace Conflict Management: A Socio-Technical Justice Framework for HR Policy, Ethical Governance, and Capability Development

Objective: This paper develops a conceptual theory-building framework for understanding and managing AI-enabled workplace conflict. It reframes AI-mediated conflict as a socio-technical justice problem and proposes the Hybrid Conflict Governance Model (HCGM), which links HR policy design, ethical governance mechanisms, and workforce capability development to conflict outcomes through procedural justice, trust, contestability, and human oversight pathways. Methods: This study adopts a conceptual theory-building design based on interdisciplinary literature synthesis. Literature from human resource management, artificial intelligence governance, organizational justice, socio-technical systems theory, digital work, and workplace conflict was synthesized using a problem-driven conceptual approach. The study integrates these literature streams to develop a theoretical framework explaining how AI-enabled workplace conflict emerges and how governance mechanisms may influence conflict outcomes. Conceptual Findings: The analysis identifies four major AI-enabled conflict dynamics: algorithmic bias, algorithmic surveillance, human–AI decision misalignment, and opacity in AI-supported decision making. The proposed HCGM explains how AI system characteristics influence employee justice perceptions, trust, and conflict escalation or reduction. The model identifies four interdependent governance layers: foundational rights, structural governance, operational integration, and capability development. These layers interact dynamically and are shaped by boundary conditions including organizational culture, AI autonomy, workforce digital literacy, and regulatory context. Conclusion: AI-enabled workplace conflict cannot be managed through technical controls alone. Effective governance requires integrated HR policies, ethical oversight, transparent decision processes, human review mechanisms, and workforce capability development. The HCGM contributes to AI governance, HRM, and workplace conflict literature by explaining how socio-technical governance mechanisms shape fairness perceptions, trust, and conflict outcomes in AI-mediated workplaces.