Putting Pressure: Influence of Telepresence Robot in Communication between Teleworking Boss and Subordinates

In this study, we investigate whether a telepresence robot enhances the persuasiveness of a remote boss, which is measured by the behavior changes or opinion changes of the communication partner. In our study, we used the telepresence robot as a proxy of the teleworking boss. We designed a simplified in-basket test to enable quantitative measurement of the task outcome. We also included a questionnaire as a subjective measure. In our experiment, we tested whether the movements of the robot affect the persuasiveness of the remote boss. The task outcome showed that the robot's movements had no effect in terms of persuasiveness. Interestingly, however, the questionnaire results suggest that the movements of the robot, especially its orientation toward individual subordinates when giving comments, seemed to strengthen the sense of pressure subordinates experienced when performing a task.