Leadership Under Multimodal Pressure: How Organizational Decisions Shape Human Interaction with Immersive Technologies

The increasing integration of multimodal technologies, including augmented and virtual reality and interactive digital systems, has shifted the focus of innovation from technological capability to user experience and interaction. In organizational settings, leadership structures play a key role in shaping how these technologies are designed and experienced. This study examines how leadership control orientation influences innovation outcomes through multimodal experience design and cognitive burden. Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 3017 employees who actively use multimodal systems, the study develops a process-based model linking leadership, multimodal experience design, cognitive burden, and innovation. The findings suggest that control-oriented leadership is negatively associated with multimodal experience design and positively associated with cognitive burden, whereas well-structured multimodal systems are associated with lower levels of cognitive burden. Multimodal design emerges as a central driver of perceived innovation, whereas cognitive overload negatively affects innovation outcomes. The results further reveal a sequential mediation process involving multimodal experience design and cognitive burden. Multi-group analysis confirms that these relationships remain stable across different levels of environmental control. The study contributes by integrating leadership, human–technology interaction, and experience design into a unified framework, offering a process-oriented explanation of innovation in multimodal environments.