Work 4.0

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the concerns of the largest companies operating in the Portuguese market regarding technological developments and artificial intelligence in the context of replacing human work with machines. More specifically, this study targets the reference to these concerns in these companies' codes of ethics and/or codes of conduct. The codes of ethics of 20 large companies operating in Portugal were thus analysed and classified according to their turnover, adopting an analytical method based on three dimensions identified as relevant for the respective evaluation: social responsibility, technological innovation, and commitments to employees. The conclusions from this study are that the companies analysed do not show in their codes of ethics any concern in mentioning the safeguarding of jobs if these are ever to be replaced by machines.