Workers and New Technology? Analyzing the Complex and Multidimensional Relation through Job Quality
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
2025
Early view
1-20
digitalisation ; quality of working life ; workers participation ; trade union ; technological change
Technology
https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.158618
English
"While the impact of new technology on work is vast, our knowledge remains somewhat fragmented, particularly from a workers' perspective. This article applies job quality as a multi-dimensional approach to contribute to deepening our understanding of the effect new technology has for public sector workers in Denmark. Job quality is a multi-dimensional concept, and the technological development has a different impact on the various dimensions leading to somewhat mixed results. Despite studying different occupations, the impact on some dimensions was clearer: the results show how worker autonomy is challenged by new technology, the physical work environment is improved, and levels of workload, stress, and job intensity are being more negatively affected. Overall, new technology is improving some dimensions of job quality, worsening others, and yet other dimensions remain less affected, contributing to the overall complexity. However, there is a subjective dimension, with the same technology having varying impact on workers."
This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Digital
The ETUI is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ETUI.