Industry 4.0 and the New World of Work

Abstract

Industry 4.0 and its leading-edge components are transforming all aspects of human life with wide-ranging repercussions for managing production and workforce in the digital age. The traditional definitions of formal and informal employment are no longer applicable to our world, thanks to disruptions of various nature. The innovation landscape is radically altering the way work is done as well as where it is done, leading to an expansion of the gig economy with its freelancers, contract workers, agile workforce, or independent workforce who are constituting increasingly more temporary providers of labor. In addition to a tension between technological development and loss of jobs at the expense of individuals with lower set of skills, advancing technology is enabling new forms of organizing through facilitating new work arrangements. The new world of work is characterized by short-term contracts, fluidity, fragmentation, transience, temporariness, increased autonomy, and independence, on the one hand, and by precarity, financial instability, job uncertainty, and insecurity embedded in its very fabric, on the other, hence presenting both opportunities and challenges that need to be urgently addressed by researchers and policymakers. The inevitable tension between technology-driven developments in economy and labor markets is further exacerbated by the most recent pandemic and global economic recession, making scholarly and policy discussions all the more relevant.

Citation

Dirik, D. (2022), "Industry 4.0 and the New World of Work", Yakut, E. (Ed.) Industry 4.0 and Global Businesses, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-326-120211001