TECHNOLOGY – INDUCED WORKPLACE CHANGE AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Growth in technology, increase in computing knowledge to both consumers and enterprises, and internet connectivity has changed the traditional way of doing business. These technological growths have brought about changes in the way a work is done and also changes the worker too. Due to this workers undergo depression and anxiety anticipating job loss by technologically generated workplace changes. However, increased digitalization of the workplace has been an advantage for the organizations through increased productivity, cost savings, a more mobile and agile workplace and increased adaptability in the complex marketplace. Moreover, the new digital workplace has its own challenges too. Anxiety is a commonly observed problem among the workers, due to the introduction of technology in the workplace. The feeling of anxiety and frustration leads to resistance; which ultimately rejects the benefits the management had hoped to accumulate by executing it. If such resistance is not properly dealt with at the organizational level, it may compromise with the intellectual and/or emotional capacity of the workers to adjust with the introduction of the growing new technology. An effort to manage the period of transformation is required to navigate the tension between the negative and positive perspectives on the growing displacement of human labour by technology. The displacement of the worker may result in economic divergence between rich and poor, economic poverty, social unrest for growing numbers of dislocated workers, backlashes against technology and economic and social decline. The use of technology if handled properly, to replace workaday, lackluster, repetitive, dangerous or strenuous labour could make it possible to live more meaningful and contented lives.