Employment Relations in the Era of Industry 4.0

Dear Colleagues,

The main recent postmodern developments that have been driven by the post COVID era, the 4th Industrial Revolution, and new globalization affect the world of work (Koutroukis et al. 2022; Pfeiffer, 2016). The current study of employment relations seeks to humanize, stabilize, professionalize, democratize, and balance the market economy through old and new institutions. In essence, employment relations seek to make market economies work better (Bosch and Schmitz–Kiessler, 2020). The rise of the digital workplace, involving algorithmic management, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, requires an assessment of its impact on workers and labor-management relations (Kataria et al, 2020; Lloyd and Payne, 2019). In a working environment with robots and AI, the critical dimension has been organizational adaptation by socioeconomic actors, and specifically enterprises and unions (Stroud and Weinel, 2020; Haapanela et, al, 2023). In this context, three significant issues should be studied (Koutroukis et al, 2022). First, vocational education and training are essential in responding to the needs and anticipations of working environments. Thus, organizational change should be linked with corporate (management and labor) learning and collective capacity, building within organizations (Bikse et al, 2022; Pfeiffer, 2018). Second, there is a growing trend towards the psychologization of employment relations. Additionally, the abandonment of unions’ traditional self-image and the adoption of a rather individualism-driven approach compared to a collectivism-driven one have been important shifts towards novel workplaces (Godard, 2014). Third, several differences in the perception of representation by employees have arisen. Thus, the enhancement of labor–management partnership relations through schemes that foster employee voices could improve employee relations for mutual benefit to organizations and everyday life. Moreover, they could create a collaborative culture by promoting institutional change and organizational adaptation (Edwards and Ramirez, 2016; Casey and Delaney, 2022).

References

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Bosch, G. and Schmitz–Kiessler, J. (2020), Shaping Industry 4.0–an experimental approach developed by German trade unions, Transfer, 26(2) https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258920918480

Casey, C. and Delaney, H. (2022). The effort of partnership: Capacity development and moral capital in partnership for mutual gains, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 43(1): 52-71. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X19883007

Edwards, P. and Ramirez, P. (2016) When workers should embrace or resist new technology? New Technology, Work and Employment 31(2): 99–113.

Godard, Ј. (2014), The psychologisation of employment relations?, Human Resource Management Journal 24(1), https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12030

Haapanala, H., Marx, I. and Parolin, Z. (2023). Robots and unions: The moderating effect of organized labour on technological unemployment, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 44(3), 827-852 https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X221094078

Kataria, A., Kumar, S., Sureka, R. and Gupta, B. (2020), Forty years of Employee Relations – The International Journal: a bibliometric overview, Employee Relations, 42(6), 1205-1230. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-10-2019-0410

Koutroukis, T., Chatzinikolaou, D., Vlados, C. and Pistikou, V. (2022), The Post-COVID-19 Era, Fourth Industrial Revolution, and New Globalization: Restructured Labor Relations and Organizational Adaptation, Societies, 12, 187. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12060187

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2019) Rethinking country effects: Robotics, AI and work futures in Norway and the UK. New Technology, Work and Employment, 34(3): 208–225.

Pfeiffer, S, (2016) Robots, Industry 4.0 and humans, or why assembly work is more than routine work, Societies 6(2):1–26.

Pfeiffer, S. (2018) The ‘future of employment’ on the shop floor: Why production jobs are less susceptible to computerization than assumed, International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 5(3): 208–225.

Stroud, D. and Weinel, M. (2020) A safer, faster, leaner workplace? Technical-maintenance worker perspectives on digital drone technology ‘effects’ in the European steel industry. New Technology, Work and Employment 35(3): 297–313.

Prof. Dr. Theodore Koutroukis
Prof. Dr. Elenica Sofianova
Guest Editors

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• employment relations
• industry 4.0.
• digital workplace
• partnership
• employee voice
• individualism
• COVID-19
• human resource management
• trade unions