The Impact of Industry 4.0 on Employees—Insights from Australia

Abstract

Currently, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is the most popular concept relating to changes in the functioning of industrial enterprises. Industry 4.0 has been discussed in the actual literature mainly from a technological perspective, overlooking social challenges regarding this fourth industrial revolution. The objective of this article is to diagnose the impact of I4.0 on employees. This aim will be achieved by (1) a literature review of existing research efforts, (2) conducting structured interviews, and (3) summarizing the current state of knowledge and providing a definition of further work. Scopus, Web of Science, and a set of specific keywords were used to select peer-reviewed articles showing evidence of the impact of I4.0 on employees/jobs in given countries or industries. After determining the current state of research in this area, it was decided to conduct structured interviews questionnaire in the country (Australia) and industry (horticulture), which had not been covered by the research in this topic so far. The main contribution of the article was the development and validation of a comprehensive research agenda on the impact of I4.0 on employees. The obtained results suggest that the impact of I4.0 on employees is significant, and the changes occur in many different categories related to human work. The impact of I4.0 was identified both at the macro (labor market) and micro (jobs) level.