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Book part
Publication date: 4 July 2019

Technology-Driven Task Replacement and the Future of Employment

Jerry A. Jacobs and Rachel Karen

In this chapter, the authors offer a critical appraisal of predictions of a jobless future due do rapid technological change, as well as provide evidence on whether the…

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Abstract

In this chapter, the authors offer a critical appraisal of predictions of a jobless future due do rapid technological change, as well as provide evidence on whether the rate of occupational change has been increasing. The authors critique the “task replacement” methodology that underlies the most powerful and specific predictions about the impact of technology on employment in particular occupations. There are a number of reasons why assuming a correspondence between task replacement and employment declines is not warranted. The authors also raise questions about how rapidly the development, acceptance, and diffiusion of labor-displacing technologies is likely to occur. In the empirical portion of the chapter, the authors compare the current rate of employment disruption with those observed in earlier periods. This analysis is based on an analysis of occupation data in the US covering the period 1870–2015. Using an index of dissimilarity as the metric, the authors find that the rate of occupational change from 1870 to 2015 does not provide evidence of a sharp uptick in the rate of occupational shifts in the information age. Instead, the rate of occupation shifts has been declining slowly throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, the issues and results discussed here suggest that imminent massive employment displacement is not a foregone conclusion.

Details

Work and Labor in the Digital Age
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-283320190000033004
ISBN: 978-1-78973-585-7

Keywords

  • Automation
  • robots
  • job displacement
  • future of work
  • jobless future
  • digitalization

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1997

A postmodern spiritual future for work

Jerry Biberman and Michael Whitty

Contends that predictions of the end of work as we know it, and a bleak jobless future, as we head into the twenty‐first century, derive from a modernist paradigm of work…

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Abstract

Contends that predictions of the end of work as we know it, and a bleak jobless future, as we head into the twenty‐first century, derive from a modernist paradigm of work ‐ a paradigm that has been the prevailing paradigm for the past 100 years. Seeks to provide a more hopeful and humane paradigm for the future of work ‐ a model based on spiritual guidelines and principles. Describes characteristics of each paradigm and then contrasts them on both the individual manager and organization levels. Explores how these principles could be applied to produce power in organizational settings.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09534819710160790
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

  • Management
  • Organizational change
  • Organizational theory
  • Values
  • Work

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Book part
Publication date: 9 August 2017

Smart Industry Research in the Field of HRM: Resetting Job Design as an Example of Upcoming Challenges

Milou Habraken and Tanya Bondarouk

This chapter aims to encourage and guide smart industry HRM-related research by addressing upcoming challenges developed using a job design lens.

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Abstract

Purpose

This chapter aims to encourage and guide smart industry HRM-related research by addressing upcoming challenges developed using a job design lens.

Methodology/approach

The challenges are constructed based on a developed overview of the existing body of work related to job design and a description of smart industry.

Research implications

The challenges are meant as an indication of the issues that arise within job design due to smart industry and, in so doing, suggest directions for future research in this specific field. Additionally, through laying out challenges for this particular example, the chapter encourages scholars to consider the possible impact of smart industry within other HRM areas.

Details

Electronic HRM in the Smart Era
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-315-920161009
ISBN: 978-1-78714-315-9

Keywords

  • Challenges
  • Smart industry
  • HRM
  • Job design

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1981

Work Study Volume 30 Issue 3

THERE are signs that are only too welcome that the workers of the world, tired of or fearful of continual depression, are at last prepared to take positive steps towards…

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Abstract

THERE are signs that are only too welcome that the workers of the world, tired of or fearful of continual depression, are at last prepared to take positive steps towards their solution.

Details

Work Study, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb048385
ISSN: 0043-8022

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Article
Publication date: 9 January 2019

On the economic consequences of automation and robotics

Orlando Gomes and Sónia Pereira

The academic literature is currently placing significant attention on the study of the socio-economic consequences of the observable fast automation of all sectors of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The academic literature is currently placing significant attention on the study of the socio-economic consequences of the observable fast automation of all sectors of economic activity. The purpose of this paper is to systematize meaningful ideas on the economic impact of the rise of the robots.

Design/methodology/approach

With the goal of evaluating the channels through which the current wave of fast technological change affects the organization and performance of the economy and the behavior of agents, the paper is structured into two parts. The first part assesses the state of knowledge regarding the potential revolutionary role of robot use in production. The second part designs a model aimed at exposing the interplay between the most prominent features associated with the new economic reality.

Findings

The current wave of innovation has implications that escape conventional economic thinking. The evaluation and prediction of what the new phenomena brings is fundamental to design policies that prevent income inequality to widen and growth to slow down.

Research limitations/implications

The full macroeconomic impact of the fast, pervasive and irreversible automation of production is far from being completely assimilated. At this level, no benchmark model should be interpreted as a definitive framework of analysis, and economic thought should evolve alongside with empirically observed evidence.

Originality/value

We are facing an automation convulsion that replaces humans by machines at an unprecedented fast rate. This paper systematizes ideas about this process and offers a novel conceptual model to better understand what really is at stake.

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. 36 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JEAS-04-2018-0049
ISSN: 1026-4116

Keywords

  • Automation
  • Machine learning
  • Cloud robotics
  • Distribution of tasks and skills
  • Jobless economy
  • Labor market polarization

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Book part
Publication date: 4 July 2019

Index

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Abstract

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Work and Labor in the Digital Age
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-283320190000033011
ISBN: 978-1-78973-585-7

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 15 January 2021

Notes

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein and Frederick Harry Pitts

Free Access
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A World Beyond Work?
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-143-820201011
ISBN: 978-1-78769-143-8

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Article
Publication date: 11 October 2019

Doing and being: future graduates, careers and Industry 4.0

David Starr-Glass

The purpose of this conceptual study is to reflect on “career” and consider the ways in which its meaning and structure have changed and will continue to change during the…

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Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual study is to reflect on “career” and consider the ways in which its meaning and structure have changed and will continue to change during the era of Industry 4.0. It contends that career advice to students and soon-to-be graduates is an integral part of the educational process and that an understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by career should be initiated within academia.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is a critical reflection on the literature and the present author’s experience and practice in student career advisement, particularly in the management and business sectors. The methodology used is essentially phenomenological, and the central approach is to make sense of the changing construct of career and the ways in which those changes impact relevant stakeholders. The work is not empirically based and may well have limited generalizability. Nevertheless, it is hoped that it will be of particular interest, value and relevancy to students, graduates and those engaged in career-related issues.

Findings

This study contends that the ongoing evolution of career is best understood as a shift from a progressive sequences of “doing” towards a more expansive and meaningful narrative of “being” and becoming. Recognition of this shift, especially for those studying business-centered subjects, will provide graduates with a better map and direction as they embark on their career trajectories.

Originality/value

Graduation success is critically important for individuals, educational institutions and society at large. A fundamental aspect of perceived success, particularly for business school graduates, is the ability to develop a rewarding career trajectory. This study offers original perspectives on career and presents suggestions that may be of value to those who are about to graduate, to their educational institutions and to those who will deal with them in their work and professional futures.

Details

On the Horizon , vol. 27 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-08-2019-0048
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

  • Becoming
  • Employment
  • Positive psychology
  • Life narratives
  • Life-work balance
  • Nature of work

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Book part
Publication date: 19 December 2017

Probing Precarious Work: Theory, Research, and Politics

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Precarious Work
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-283320170000031017
ISBN: 978-1-78743-288-8

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Article
Publication date: 5 February 2018

Technological unemployment as frictional unemployment: From Luddite to routine-biased technological change

Federico Fiorelli

The purpose of this paper is to present some scenarios about a possible future evolution of the labour market in the knowledge economy.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present some scenarios about a possible future evolution of the labour market in the knowledge economy.

Design/methodology/approach

The author used the literature to describe the historical evolution of the technology unemployment.

Findings

Digital technology does not directly generate unemployment, as the balance between jobs destroyed and created has historically always been positive. Indeed, technological unemployment in such a context can manifest itself in the form of frictional unemployment.

Originality/value

The study enriches the literature on the relationship between digital technologies and unemployment rate.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 47 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/K-03-2017-0089
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

  • Information and communications technology (ICT) revolution
  • Luddite fallacy
  • Routine-biased technological change
  • Technological unemployment

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