IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/infsem/v20y2022i3d10.1007_s10257-022-00552-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employees’ attitudes towards intelligent robots: a dilemma analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Amy Van Looy

    (Ghent University)

Abstract

With the increasing adoption of robotics in professional applications, the question arises of what impact robots with more cognitive skills will have on the labor market. Since such intelligent robots can highly affect the way of doing business, prior studies have mainly targeted their economic impact on work productivity. This article, on the other hand, focuses on the acceptance of intelligent robots by employees. We conducted 48 semi-structured interviews with office workers and managers. Based on three dilemmas, this paper uncovers why such employees would leave their work practices (fully or partially) to intelligent robots. Our findings show that many tasks can already be replaced with the necessary support. Employees seem highly positive about robots in the workplace and feel comfortable leaving simple tasks. Since they are especially skeptical about using robots for social, creative or confident tasks, proper guidance and training are crucial. By looking at the human level of intelligent robots, we add social and ethical considerations. Organizations gain insight into how employees typically view robotic changes to proactively react to employee concerns by gradually adopting their corporate innovation strategy. This study also provides an impetus for further research, with the ultimate aim of humanizing digital work.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy Van Looy, 2022. "Employees’ attitudes towards intelligent robots: a dilemma analysis," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 371-408, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infsem:v:20:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10257-022-00552-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10257-022-00552-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10257-022-00552-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10257-022-00552-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2018. "The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(6), pages 1488-1542, June.
    2. Frey, Carl Benedikt & Osborne, Michael A., 2017. "The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 254-280.
    3. David H. Autor, 2015. "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 3-30, Summer.
    4. Ben Vermeulen & Jan Kesselhut & Andreas Pyka & Pier Paolo Saviotti, 2018. "The Impact of Automation on Employment: Just the Usual Structural Change?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-27, May.
    5. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Nripendra P. Rana & Anand Jeyaraj & Marc Clement & Michael D. Williams, 2019. "Re-examining the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT): Towards a Revised Theoretical Model," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 719-734, June.
    6. Sandy Q. Qu & John Dumay, 2011. "The qualitative research interview," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 238-264, August.
    7. Marie-Sophie Denner & Louis Christian Püschel & Maximilian Röglinger, 2018. "How to Exploit the Digitalization Potential of Business Processes," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 60(4), pages 331-349, August.
    8. Armin Granulo & Christoph Fuchs & Stefano Puntoni, 2019. "Psychological reactions to human versus robotic job replacement," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(10), pages 1062-1069, October.
    9. Hartwell, Christopher J. & Johnson, Clark D. & Posthuma, Richard A., 2019. "Are we asking the right questions? Predictive validity comparison of four structured interview question types," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 122-129.
    10. Fábio Neves & Pedro Campos & Sandra Silva, 2019. "Innovation and Employment: An Agent-Based Approach," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 22(1), pages 1-8.
    11. Balsmeier, Benjamin & Woerter, Martin, 2019. "Is this time different? How digitalization influences job creation and destruction," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    12. Benedikt Schnellbächer & Sven Heidenreich, 2020. "The role of individual ambidexterity for organizational performance: examining effects of ambidextrous knowledge seeking and offering," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 1535-1561, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jasmine Mondolo, 2022. "The composite link between technological change and employment: A survey of the literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1027-1068, September.
    2. Montobbio, Fabio & Staccioli, Jacopo & Virgillito, Maria Enrica & Vivarelli, Marco, 2022. "Robots and the origin of their labour-saving impact," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    3. Cirillo, Valeria & Evangelista, Rinaldo & Guarascio, Dario & Sostero, Matteo, 2021. "Digitalization, routineness and employment: An exploration on Italian task-based data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    4. Patrick Mellacher & Timon Scheuer, 2021. "Wage Inequality, Labor Market Polarization and Skill-Biased Technological Change: An Evolutionary (Agent-Based) Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 233-278, August.
    5. Kinga Hat & Gernot Stoeglehner, 2020. "Spatial Dimension of the Employment Market Exposition to Digitalisation—The Case of Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-29, March.
    6. Fossen, Frank M. & Sorgner, Alina, 2022. "New digital technologies and heterogeneous wage and employment dynamics in the United States: Evidence from individual-level data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. Laura Abrardi & Carlo Cambini & Laura Rondi, 2022. "Artificial intelligence, firms and consumer behavior: A survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 969-991, September.
    8. Huajie Jiang & Qiguo Gong, 2022. "Does Skill Polarization Affect Wage Polarization? U.S. Evidence 2009–2021," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Albanesi, Stefania & Da Silva, António Dias & Jimeno, Juan F. & Lamo, Ana & Wabitsch, Alena, 2023. "New technologies and jobs in Europe," Working Paper Series 2831, European Central Bank.
    10. Lu, Jing & Xiao, Qinglan & Wang, Taoxuan, 2023. "Does the digital economy generate a gender dividend for female employment? Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6).
    11. Hunt, Wil & Sarkar, Sudipa & Warhurst, Chris, 2022. "Measuring the impact of AI on jobs at the organization level: Lessons from a survey of UK business leaders," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    12. Gries, Thomas & Naudé, Wim, 2022. "Modelling artificial intelligence in economics," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 56, pages 1-12.
    13. Beier, Grischa & Matthess, Marcel & Shuttleworth, Luke & Guan, Ting & de Oliveira Pereira Grudzien, David Iubel & Xue, Bing & Pinheiro de Lima, Edson & Chen, Ling, 2022. "Implications of Industry 4.0 on industrial employment: A comparative survey from Brazilian, Chinese, and German practitioners," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Zhihui Dai & Yue Niu & Hongru Zhang & Xiaodi Niu, 2022. "Impact of the Transforming and Upgrading of China’s Labor-Intensive Manufacturing Industry on the Labor Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, October.
    15. Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole, 2024. "What is the price of a skill? The value of complementarity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    16. Carlos Bianchi & Hugo Laguna, 2020. "Firm’s innovation strategies and employment: new evidence from Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 20-06, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    17. Innocenti, Stefania & Golin, Marta, 2022. "Human capital investment and perceived automation risks: Evidence from 16 countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 27-41.
    18. José-Ignacio Antón & David Klenert & Enrique Fernández-Macías & Maria Cesira Urzì Brancati & Georgios Alaveras, 2022. "The labour market impact of robotisation in Europe," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 28(3), pages 317-339, September.
    19. Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt & Presidente, Giorgio, 2022. "Automation or globalization? The impacts of robots and Chinese imports on jobs in the United Kingdom," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 528-542.
    20. Naudé, Wim, 2019. "The Race against the Robots and the Fallacy of the Giant Cheesecake: Immediate and Imagined Impacts of Artificial Intelligence," IZA Discussion Papers 12218, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:infsem:v:20:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10257-022-00552-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.