POINTS TO PONDER

Interesting write up related to my current research area ” Digital Workplace”

The Future of Work and Employment in the 4th Industrial Revolution
Stream Leader: Professor Valeria Pulignano, KU Leuven, Belgium

Employment and the character of work are changing as the result of increased digitalization, robotization and use of the Internet. The emergence of these new technologies contributes to shifting the boundaries between human and machine capabilities, with dramatic implications on individual jobs and their working conditions as well as the knowledge and skills of human capital alike (Valenduc and Vandramin, 2016). In particular, several studies emphasise a shift towards the ‘commodification’ or ‘marketisation’ of knowledge (Fleissner, 2009). Specifically, it is claimed that recent technological innovations lead to a major shift in the boundary between codified and tacit knowledge, to the detriment of the latter (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2015). Regarding what the social effects of this shift will be, some scholars argue that machines and robots will replace human capital. This is because technological innovation within the field of big data processing requires a new way to classify tasks (cognitive and manual as well as routine and non-routine) and skills, which will dramatically change the way of working (Autor et al., 2003; Frey and Osborne, 2013). On the other hand, it is argued that society needs to learn to work together with robots i.e. ‘race with the machine rather than against it’ (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2015). Accordingly, the future of work will depend on achieving an optimum balance between the new generation of high-performance machines and human skills, which is a very different perspective to the traditional view of machines as a substitute for human capital espoused earlier by Frey and Osborne (2013) and Autor et al. (2003).

As a society within an increasingly on-demand economy, choices must be made about how to deploy new technologies, and critically to consider the possibility of shaping their impact. Therefore, crucial questions include: what balance will there be among jobs created as the digital wave flows through our economy and society, and which workers will be displaced (if any)? Will the new technologies generate converging trends in how enterprises will interact with customers and employees? If so, why? What will be the conditions (or factors) for successful adaptations within the interconnections of value chains or the creation of digital customer interfaces? Irrespective of whether it may be feasible to catalogue existing work, particularly work that is routine, as likely to be replaced or recon­figured by digital tools, and perhaps to estimate the numbers of such existing jobs that will be digitized away, it may be more difficult to envisage the new jobs which will be redefined and reorganized in the future.

This stream aims to discuss the challenges digitalization, robotization and the use of the Internet and new technologies alike pose for human capital, as well as the way in which to generate new knowledge and emphasise its relevance for policy and practice. We are particularly interested in papers which help in understanding the social implications, and theorize the processes and dynamics, guiding the changes at the intersections of new technology and human capital. We are also interested in empirical papers involving international comparisons. Papers will be considered for a Special Issue of an academic journal or an edited collection.

By all means contact the Stream Leader or Coordinator to discuss your planned contribution(s).

Prof Valeria Pulignano
Professor of Sociology of Labour and Industrial Relations, KU Leuven, Belgium
Valeria.pulignano@kuleuven.be

Dr Puteri Sofia Amirnuddin
PuteriSofia.Amirnuddin@taylors.edu.my

References
Autor D. H., Levy F. and Murmane R.J. (2003) ‘The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118 (4): 1279-1333.

Brynjolfsson E. and McAfee A. (2015) The second machine age. Work, progress and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies, New York, W. W. Norton & Company.

Fleissner P. (2009) ‘The “commodification” of knowledge in the global information society’, Triple-C, 7(2): 228-238.

Frey C. B. and Osborne M. A. (2013) The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?, Oxford Martin School Working paper, Oxford, Oxford University.

Valenduc G. and Vandramin, P. (2016) Work in the digital economy: sorting the old from the new, ETUI Working Paper 2016.03