Scholarship
Research
How do AI, media, emotion, and motivation change the skills, attitudes, and behaviors of project managers and leaders?
Human Side is the public writing of this program, not a substitute for it. The empirical work sits in journals, a doctoral study, and manuscripts in motion. The essays on this site stay adjacent: they do not recap methods, and they do not pretend a dashboard is a finding.
Dr. Sarah Dyson is Program Lead and Assistant Professor in the Doctorate of Digital Enterprise Leadership at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Associate Professor at National University, and a member of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of Beyond the Project Horizon: Journal of the Center for Project Management Innovation, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.
Lines of inquiry
Attachment to digital teammates
The L.I.S.A. Project asked what happens when an emotionally expressive AI colleague is threatened with termination. Professionals form attachments that look like human bonds: multiple styles at once, stronger in younger cohorts, and ethically charged at the moment of shutdown.
Trust and emotional intelligence as capital
Project managers rarely have line authority. Relationships, self-esteem, and emotional skill are the working surface. The program treats trust as dated capital — deposited, withdrawn, and called — not as culture or sentiment.
ADHD traits as project assets
Hyperfocus, energy, and divergent thinking are strategic in high-arousal work. A current manuscript tests a strengths-based frame: AI as privacy-first cognitive scaffolding, not a deficit correction, in rapid-cycle project environments.
Triarchic intelligence and AI use
A live proposal asks whether Sternberg’s analytical, creative, and practical intelligence predict more accurate, less captured use of intelligent systems — street smarts as a governance variable, not a slogan.
Selected publications
2025·Published
Operational Endings, Emotional Impacts: Ethical Considerations When Project Teams Form Attachments to AI Collaborators
Wise, T., Dyson, S. M., Onu, S., Clark, J., Zagerman, J., & Williams, J.
Beyond the Project Horizon: Journal of the Center for Project Management and Innovation
Mixed-methods L.I.S.A. findings on attachment, termination, and ethical stewardship when an AI teammate is taken offline.
2025·Published
Architecting Human-AI Relationships: Governance Frameworks for Emotional AI Integration
Dyson, S.
Architecture & Governance Magazine
Practice translation of L.I.S.A. for enterprise architects: transition protocols, emotional boundaries, and industry-specific norms.
2023·Published
Why Do Relationships Matter to Project Managers? 3 Elements to Integrate into Every Project Manager Tool-Kit
Dyson, S. M., & Deklinski, J.
Beyond the Project Horizon: Journal of the Center for Project Management and Innovation
Emotional intelligence as a learnable leadership skill when the project manager must work through relationships, not authority.
2019·Dissertation
Gaming, Workplace Self-Esteem, and Counterproductive Work Behaviors
Dyson, S. M.
Walden University. Ph.D. in Psychology, specialization in social psychology.
Doctoral study on self-esteem and counterproductive behavior — the empirical base for later work on status, attachment, and workplace emotion.
In manuscript
Work in motion. Titles may move. None of this is a claim of publication.
2026·In progress
Applying ADHD Traits in Project Management: A Strengths-Based Framework for AI-Enabled Cognitive Scaffolding
Dyson, S.
Manuscript
Meta-synthesis arguing that hyperfocus and divergent thinking are assets, and that privacy-first AI co-regulation can scaffold executive function without turning the person into a monitored object.
2026·In progress
The L.I.S.A. Reanalysis: Relational Dynamics and Emotional AI Trust
Dyson, S.
Secondary analysis
Age, industry, and concurrent attachment styles as moderators of trust erosion. Younger cohorts amplify the path from AI trust to emotional vulnerability.
2026·In progress
Triarchic intelligence and effective use of intelligent systems
Dyson, S.
Research proposal
Whether analytical, creative, and practical intelligence predict less captured, more accountable AI use in organizational settings.
Records
For collaboration, speaking, or doctoral questions: [email protected]. The portable pause that sits beside this work is the Toolkit.