The Effects of New Technologies at Work on Work Outcomes and the Implications for Human Resource Development
New technologies, such as tools for digital communication or artificial intelligence, are assumed to impact the quality of jobs by affecting work outcomes such as job satisfaction, performance, health or professional development. Human Resource Developme
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roduction It is assumed that the digital revolution will influence work severely (Cascio and Montealegre 2016). For instance, industry 4.0 is often discussed in the context of major technological disruptions caused by, for instance, cyber physical systems, blockchain or the internet of things, which ultimately leads to more decentralisation and the so-called smart factory (Ghobakhloo 2018). Even though many of the papers that deal with these concepts are position papers, there is some empirical evidence that technologies can increase factors relevant to employees, organisations and HRD, for instance job insecurity (Ayyagari et al. 2011) in terms of the disappearance of jobs or changes in their content (De Witte
R. H. Mulder (*) • P. Beer University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 M. Loon et al. (eds.), The Future of HRD, Volume I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52410-4_2
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et al. 2010). For the present purpose, technology is defined more specifically as digital or mechanical devices, tools or systems that are used to substitute or complement work tasks (McOmber 1999; Autor et al. 2003). There is little empirical evidence on the effects that for instance robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and Fintech have on characteristics of work (Beer and Mulder 2020). In their systematic review study, Beer and Mulder (2020) give an overview of the empirical evidence on new technologies at work and their effects on work characteristics such as complexity, meaningfulness and autonomy. For instance, job complexity is increasing, especially when working with automated systems and domain- specific technologies (Gough et al. 2014). Technologies with the intent to increase flexibility often increase workload and interruptions in the workflow as well (Ninaus et al. 2015). This particularly applies to ubiquitous technologies such as information and communication technologies (ICTs). Automated systems decrease autonomy and work roles in many cases depending on how specific jobs are related to the system (supporting vs. being supported; James et al. 2013). In addition, there is evidence suggesting that requirements for qualifications may increase while opportunities for growth are no natural consequence of working with automated systems or robots (Körner et al. 2019). In addition to impact on job characteristics, new technologies can have an effect on different work outcomes. For instance, they can affect relevant aspects of employees’ work and, consequently, their job satisfaction, wellbeing, health and stress (Ayyagari et al. 2011; Dvash and Mannheim 2001). To our knowledge, a systematic overview on the impact of new technologies on work outcomes in the sense of human behaviour or a result of that human behaviour has not been carried out yet. This gap needs to be filled to support organisations, and more specifically HRD, to develop measures for maintaining and improving the quality of jobs. Indicators of quality are de
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