Industry 4.0 and the Job Quality and Well-Being of Manufacturing Workers

Abstract

This paper reports an international survey of how Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies are affecting job quality and employee well-being in manufacturing. Consistent with the theory that greater capital intensity and technological/operational uncertainty predict greater worker participation in management, the results more strongly support the optimistic rather than the pessimistic view of how I4.0 technologies will affect job quality. Greater use of the most prevalent I4.0 technologies is associated with greater involvement in decision-making, which leads to higher job satisfaction and better psychological health. Greater use of I4.0 technologies is not associated with work intensification. This suggests that I4.0 technologies can help humanize work, although our data suggest that the transformation to a smart factory may imply that employee involvement is associated with more highly qualified workers. The study does not rule out the emergence of digital Taylorism through increased managerial control and work intensification as I4.0 technologies are progressively debugged.