Insecure or optimistic? Employees’ diverging appraisals of automation, and consequences for job attitudes

Abstract

Automation may have varied consequences on individual workers, ranging from job loss to enhanced productivity. Although some of these disruptions may be outside of their control, employees' perceptions and reactions to automation may also play a part in shaping automation's impact on them. To this end, we draw on transactional theory of stress to distinguish between a variety of automation perceptions. In particular, we suggest that employees' beliefs that technology can conduct their work (perceived automatability) will be related to both pessimistic (automation-related job insecurity) and optimistic (automation-related performance optimism) appraisals regarding how automation will impact job prospects. Reasoning that people who feel in control feel they can mitigate the harms and harness the potential benefits of automation, we propose that perceived control moderates the extent to which perceived automatability leads to job insecurity and performance optimism. In-turn, we expect that automation-related job insecurity and performance optimism will have contrasting effects on job engagement and turnover intentions. Using a survey (N = 500) and an experiment (N = 194) we found overall support for these predictions. As such, this research sheds new light on employees' perspectives on automation at work, with implications for organizations and policymakers seeking to help employees transition to the future of work.

Keywords

• Automation
• Job insecurity
• Performance optimism
• Stress appraisal
• Job attitudes