HOW DIGITALIZATION CHANGES THE WORKPLACE

Abstract

This article examines how digitalization affects the workplace. Digitalization has been changing organizations from the discovery of the internet forward. Nowadays people cannot imagine business or their personal lives without digital technologies. Digitalization has created many challenges as well as excellent opportunities for organizations. Most existing studies examined the role of digitalization on business performance and worker productivity. We focus specifically on job satisfaction, work/life balance, and worker autonomy as three under‐researched areas of academic inquiry. We suggest that digitalization improves job satisfaction, blurs work/life balance, and promotes more worker autonomy. This research is based on answers collected with an online survey of 98 individual employees, working professionals across industries and disciplines. We analyze gathered data with one‐sample t‐tests and support all three hypotheses. Findings from the research can help managers better understand the importance and the effects of the digitalization. Because digitalization at work brings challenges and as well opportunities, it is important for managers to understand them completely in order to eliminate the risks and increase the favorable effects.

Keywords

• autonomy
• changes
• digitalization
• work/life balance