Fourth Industrial Revolution in workplace
Technology has been an essential for organization growth in present as it has overcome lot of challenges that has come to the organization due to the manual process which was carried out before.
Generally, life of an individual has been improved due to the technological changes that has happened in the society as it supports development of new products through 3different cutting edge technologies, increasing job opportunities and experience, increase the productivity and wages are few of them. Over past 32 years internet, digitalization, big data, robotics, machine learning, biotechnology, and neurology has changed the organization which had open new opportunities for industries such as communication, entertainment, education, research and work. Even though, technology has transformed and disrupted industries, work and skills while changing the commerce and industry focus. Old industries were replace by the new by the center of the production remains the same (Chandler, 2005; Freeburg, 2013). It is obvious that technology doesn’t make everyone happy, there are people with a great skill who lose their jobs due to the community declination and industries ceasing operations or relocating somewhere (Bandura and Hammond, 2018). According to the predictions of Du and Wei (2020) it is observed that large number of job losses in China has been connected with the production automation And also Frey and Osborne (2017), has shown that more than half of the jobs in UK are in a risk of being automated. Based on the observations of the World Bank (2016) that have proposed the larger percentages (60%) of the jobs are in a risk of getting automated across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
The process of work in an organization has been affected by the technological innovation where the workplace comes up with new idea of digitalization (i.e., mobile and homework; Ross et al., 2017). The present technological development phase is known are the fourth industrial revolution (4IT). 4IR term has been proposed to highlight a new technology range that are transformative and distinctive based on the capability of production change, employment, industrial struct and living standards. Based on the technological review of Schwab, there has been a strong evolution from steam power to electricity, electronics to information technology, and when 4IR has embraced the society a fusion of digital, AI, bio technical and engineering technologies got developed rapidly.
Figure 1 depicts quick revolution of the work to new technology. There are so many positive impacts to the organization from 4IR as it gives multiple and seamless opportunities and possibilities for new industries, occupations, entrepreneurial opportunities and also it will help to build the living standard of the people in the workplace (World Economic Forum, 2016). As there is always a dark side of everything there are few pessimistic views that has recognize due to 4IR as undermine labor standard, lack of job security, increase of inequalities, erode business and tax regulations are few of them (De Ruyter et al., 2019; Stanford, 2017; Rainnie and Dean, 2020).
Another significant challenge that has come up due to 4IR is that they are not capable of taking account of the organization in the short-term notice (Bali et al., 2020, in this issue), as well as the conflicts that has come up from the manager in an organization due to the technological innovation is tremendously high.
According to Herweijer et al., 2017, 4IR has been important to certain group of individuals in the society where it help to transform the economics but also there is an increase in problems that people and the planet. A major impact to the manual organizational norms has been affects after the Covid-19 outbreak where it has escorted the disruption of markets and industries (Gopinath, 2020). Hence, now better than before policy mechanisms and governance structured are created and need to ensure that government will have the proficiency to have bit ability and agility to increase the benefits in 4IR and create a great social environment in workplace (Herweijer et al., 2017: 1).
References
Balliester, T. and Elsheikhi, A., 2018. The future of work: a literature review. ILO Research Department Working Paper, 29, pp.1-62.
Bandura, R, Hammond, M (2018) Developing Country Trends and Insights from Four Country Case Studies. Vol. 2. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Chandler Jr, A.D., 2009. Inventing the electronic century. In Inventing the Electronic Century. Harvard University Press.
De Ruyter, A., Brown, M. and Burgess, J., 2018. Gig work and the fourth industrial revolution. Journal of International Affairs, 72(1), pp.37-50.
Formunyam*, D., 2020. The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Future of Engineering Education in South Africa. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 9(7), pp.1116-1120.
Gopinath, G., 2020. The great lockdown: Worst economic downturn since the great depression. IMF blog, 14, p.2020.
Herweijer, C., Combes, B., Johnson, L., McCargow, R., Bhardwaj, S., Jackson, B. and Ramchandani, P., 2018. Enabling a sustainable Fourth Industrial Revolution: How G20 countries can create the conditions for emerging technologies to benefit people and the planet (No. 2018-32). Economics Discussion Papers.
Rainnie, A. and Dean, M., 2020. Industry 4.0 and the future of quality work in the global digital economy. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 30(1), pp.16-33.
Schwab, K., 2017. The fourth industrial revolution. Currency.
Stanford, J., 2017. The resurgence of gig work: Historical and theoretical perspectives. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), pp.382-401.
Generally, life of an individual has been improved due to the technological changes that has happened in the society as it supports development of new products through 3different cutting edge technologies, increasing job opportunities and experience, increase the productivity and wages are few of them. Over past 32 years internet, digitalization, big data, robotics, machine learning, biotechnology, and neurology has changed the organization which had open new opportunities for industries such as communication, entertainment, education, research and work. Even though, technology has transformed and disrupted industries, work and skills while changing the commerce and industry focus. Old industries were replace by the new by the center of the production remains the same (Chandler, 2005; Freeburg, 2013). It is obvious that technology doesn’t make everyone happy, there are people with a great skill who lose their jobs due to the community declination and industries ceasing operations or relocating somewhere (Bandura and Hammond, 2018). According to the predictions of Du and Wei (2020) it is observed that large number of job losses in China has been connected with the production automation And also Frey and Osborne (2017), has shown that more than half of the jobs in UK are in a risk of being automated. Based on the observations of the World Bank (2016) that have proposed the larger percentages (60%) of the jobs are in a risk of getting automated across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
The process of work in an organization has been affected by the technological innovation where the workplace comes up with new idea of digitalization (i.e., mobile and homework; Ross et al., 2017). The present technological development phase is known are the fourth industrial revolution (4IT). 4IR term has been proposed to highlight a new technology range that are transformative and distinctive based on the capability of production change, employment, industrial struct and living standards. Based on the technological review of Schwab, there has been a strong evolution from steam power to electricity, electronics to information technology, and when 4IR has embraced the society a fusion of digital, AI, bio technical and engineering technologies got developed rapidly.
Figure 1 - (Formunyam*, 2020)
Figure 1 depicts quick revolution of the work to new technology. There are so many positive impacts to the organization from 4IR as it gives multiple and seamless opportunities and possibilities for new industries, occupations, entrepreneurial opportunities and also it will help to build the living standard of the people in the workplace (World Economic Forum, 2016). As there is always a dark side of everything there are few pessimistic views that has recognize due to 4IR as undermine labor standard, lack of job security, increase of inequalities, erode business and tax regulations are few of them (De Ruyter et al., 2019; Stanford, 2017; Rainnie and Dean, 2020).
Another significant challenge that has come up due to 4IR is that they are not capable of taking account of the organization in the short-term notice (Bali et al., 2020, in this issue), as well as the conflicts that has come up from the manager in an organization due to the technological innovation is tremendously high.
According to Herweijer et al., 2017, 4IR has been important to certain group of individuals in the society where it help to transform the economics but also there is an increase in problems that people and the planet. A major impact to the manual organizational norms has been affects after the Covid-19 outbreak where it has escorted the disruption of markets and industries (Gopinath, 2020). Hence, now better than before policy mechanisms and governance structured are created and need to ensure that government will have the proficiency to have bit ability and agility to increase the benefits in 4IR and create a great social environment in workplace (Herweijer et al., 2017: 1).
References
Balliester, T. and Elsheikhi, A., 2018. The future of work: a literature review. ILO Research Department Working Paper, 29, pp.1-62.
Bandura, R, Hammond, M (2018) Developing Country Trends and Insights from Four Country Case Studies. Vol. 2. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Chandler Jr, A.D., 2009. Inventing the electronic century. In Inventing the Electronic Century. Harvard University Press.
De Ruyter, A., Brown, M. and Burgess, J., 2018. Gig work and the fourth industrial revolution. Journal of International Affairs, 72(1), pp.37-50.
Formunyam*, D., 2020. The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Future of Engineering Education in South Africa. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 9(7), pp.1116-1120.
Gopinath, G., 2020. The great lockdown: Worst economic downturn since the great depression. IMF blog, 14, p.2020.
Herweijer, C., Combes, B., Johnson, L., McCargow, R., Bhardwaj, S., Jackson, B. and Ramchandani, P., 2018. Enabling a sustainable Fourth Industrial Revolution: How G20 countries can create the conditions for emerging technologies to benefit people and the planet (No. 2018-32). Economics Discussion Papers.
Rainnie, A. and Dean, M., 2020. Industry 4.0 and the future of quality work in the global digital economy. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 30(1), pp.16-33.
Schwab, K., 2017. The fourth industrial revolution. Currency.
Stanford, J., 2017. The resurgence of gig work: Historical and theoretical perspectives. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), pp.382-401.
The global labour market is increasingly adopting new technology. New technology makes it easier for companies to automate routine tasks and could disrupt the balance between job responsibilities completed by humans and those completed by machines and algorithms. With smart technology becoming more mainstream, we need to consider the impact using this new technology will have on our society and workforce. we prefer to think that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have a mostly positive impact on the future of work. It’ll allow us to focus on more meaningful tasks and help people across every industry complete their jobs to a higher standard. We’re excited about the upcoming changes and are currently looking for ways to integrate AI technology into our workplace.
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ReplyDeleteWith Covid-19 organizations are forced work with new technologies. This opened doors for the organizations to improve fast and to globalize easily. The use of internet of thing, Internet of system, Automation, etc. will help the organizations to innovate things which will challenge the business world and to become unique(Change Recruitment, 2018). Organizations have employees from different generations and it is best for the leaders to find ways to make all the employees technical sound to survive and move forth in the 21st century business world.
With the dawn of fourth industrial revolution which is marked by Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of things etc, a human centered approach to HRM is highly essential in order to equip people with employable skills and capabilities to retain the employees in the workplace and give them sustainable opportunities (Cooke et.al 2022 and Zareen 2020). The automation helps to remove harmful tasks, improve the speed and quality of the works. But if the organization is unable to upskill or reskill the replaced workers to the needed work they will face skill shortage (Cooke et.al 2022). The effect of digital technology is not only affecting to manufacturing sector but also for the service sector. However, this will likely to end up in better careers for people than less meaningful and less engaging tasks that they have done before.
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