How do employees support a new technology initiative? The role of Anthropomorphism and Legitimacy 4.0

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTERNET.. 2021

How do employees support a new technology initiative? The role of Anthropomorphism and Legitimacy 4.0

ANNA MARRUCCI - CRISTIANO CIAPPEI - LAMBERTO ZOLLO - RICCARDO RIALTI

Objectives. Technological progress has emerged as the most powerful driver in shaping the future of our society. Effectively, technology has both re-defined and permeated the economic, social, and environmental fields (Pham, Huynh, & Nasir, 2020). The conjunction of different technological assets – such as Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber Physical System (CPS), Big Data Analytics (BDA)- has triggered a new industrial paradigm known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). The major purpose of I4.0 is to integrate physical objects, human actor, and intelligent machines to constitute an integrated production system. Reflecting the several constituent parts of the I4.0, the debate on the new digitalization has covered different categories of interest. Chiefly, becoming ‘I4.0 compliant’ requires companies to embrace some changes in their organization (Tirabeni, Bernardi, Forliano & Franco, 2019). Specifically, technologies promote inter-actions and facilitate the integration of information from different resources. This interconnection between customers, employees and suppliers increases flexibility and empowers customized production (Muller, Kiel & Voigt, 2018). Since Industry 4.0 encourages ‘networked production’, the fitting business models will mainly be dynamic and open (Prause, 2015). Consequently, I4.0 is driving companies to change their attitude from product to service, using a network oriented and user driven approach (Ibarra, Ganzarain, & Igartua, 2017). Moreover, the substantial shift from mass production to mass customization would guarantee benefits in terms of environmental sustainability, resulting from emission reductions and a positive contribution to the development of the circular economy (Ford & Despeisse, 2016; Kamble, Gunasekaran, & Gawankar 2018; Stahel, 2016). Experts also mention economic sustainability: I4.0 supposedly creates new jobs, more efficient production systems and the emergence of new job profiles (Ghobakhloo, 2020). Though the debate on the benefits of Industry 4.0 is articulate and convincing, the actual implementation of this new paradigm remains obscure. Indeed, it seems that new digitalization is mainly focused on large companies (Mittal, Khan, Romero & Wuest,2018). Nonetheless, most of the European socio-economic sector consists of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The challenge themes faced by SMEs in adopting I4.0 concern limited financial resources, knowledge resource limitations and technology awareness limitation (Masood & Sonntag, 2020). Notwithstanding, other economies have invested a considerable financial resource to this new technological paradigm, increasing markets competitiveness. Technological progress is unavoidable and will continue to foster social changes. Consequently, public institutions should support companies’ growth by filling financial gaps; alongside, organizations should overcome their technology limitations by supporting employee’s knowledge and education. Indeed, employees’ role in the new industrial paradigm needs to be clarified. Specifically, researchers have focused on two main aspects: which are the processes of employees’ new technology acceptance and how it changes the future of work. According to some contributions, problems of acceptance may derive from employees’ general skepticism towards the virtualization of work (Murawski & Bick, 2017).  Moreover, scholars mentioned that I4.0 may increase employees’ alienation (Hirsch-Kreinsen, 2016). Employees may also feel threatened by technologies. The possibility of experiencing situations of work alienation has led some academics to consider the future of work. The main concerns relate to the loss of creativity and the lack of relationality. Indeed, employees are expected to interact with machines and computers, losing the human dimension of work (Rainnie & Dean, 2020). These approaches highlight the many critical issues connected with I4.0. However, it would be misleading to presume a standstill in digitization. Thus, the aim that scholars should pursue is finding concrete solutions to navigate through the digital perimeter, bridging the human-technology relationship. Accordingly, we take an interpretivist perspective to understand how employees perceive a new technological initiative and to verify how employees implement technological initiative. The positive perception of a new technology strategy may ensure employees’ technology acceptance (Schneider & Sting, 2020).

#Anthropomorphism #CSR #Industry 4.0 #Legitimacy 4.0 #PEP #TAM model