Abstract
Thanks to the rapid advances of technology, we are currently experiencing the fourth industrial revolution, which is introducing several changes in how organizations operate and how people learn and do their work. Many questions arise within this framework about how these transformations may affect workers’ wellbeing, and the Work and Organizational Psychology is called upon to address these open issues. This study aims to investigate personal and organizational antecedents (resilience, goal orientation and opportunities for information and training) and one consequence (work engagement) of technology acceptance within factories, comparing white- and blue-collar workers. The study involved a sample of 598 workers (white-collar = 220, blue-collar = 378) employed at an Italian company who filled in a self-report questionnaire. In both samples, the multi-group structural equation model showed a positive relationship between resilience, opportunities for information and training, and technology acceptance, which in turn showed a positive association with work engagement. All indirect effects were significant. This study investigated the motivational dynamics related to the introduction of new technologies within factories involving the little-studied population of blue-collar workers. Results highlighted the importance of providing information and opportunities for training to all employees, in order to support Industry 4.0 transformations without impacting on workers’ motivation.
Highlights
The fourth industrial revolution, called Industry 4.0, especially in Europe, is already underway.Rapid advances in technology, digitalization, smart technologies, automation and the industrial internet have enabled and characterized its progression
Technology acceptance positively correlated with resilience, goal orientation and opportunities for information and training in the whole sample and in the two groups; it showed a negative correlation with both age and professional seniority in the whole sample and in the blue-collar workers group, while these correlations were not significant in the white-collar workers group
This study contributed to the literature showing the role of certain personal and organizational resources as antecedents of technology acceptance
Summary
The fourth industrial revolution, called Industry 4.0, especially in Europe, is already underway.Rapid advances in technology, digitalization, smart technologies, automation and the industrial internet have enabled and characterized its progression. According to Schwab [2], the fourth industrial revolution is different from the previous ones, since (1) it evolves at an exponential, rather than linear, speed; (2) it disrupts almost all industries; and (3) it is able to impact production, management, and governance. Industry 4.0 refers to a series of transformations related to the use of several new technologies that will lead to more flexible, automated and interconnected manufacturing processes. What defines this revolution is the presence of Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs), the combination of enabling technologies which can facilitate the interconnection between different subjects, hardware, software and humans [3]. CPSs achieve three fundamental functions: generating and obtaining data; proceeding with their computation and aggregation; and supporting the final decision
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