The employment consequences of robots : firm-level evidence / by Jay Dixon and Bryan Hong.: CS11-0019/454E-PDF

"As a new general-purpose technology, robots have the potential to radically transform industries and employment. In contrast to previous studies at the industry level that predicted dramatic employment declines, this study finds that investments in robotics are associated with increases in total firm employment, but decreases in the total number of managers. It also finds that robot investments are associated with an increase in the span of control for managers remaining within the organization. This study provides evidence that robot adoption is not motivated by the desire to reduce labour costs, but is instead related to improving product and service quality. These findings are consistent with the notion that robots reduce variance in production processes, diminishing the need for managers to monitor workers to ensure production quality. Decreases in managerial headcount may also arise from changes in workforce composition. This study finds that investments in robotics are associated with decreases in employment for middle-skilled workers, but increases in employment for low-skilled and high-skilled workers, potentially changing managerial activities required by the firm. With respect to organizational change, this study shows that robots predict both the centralization and the decentralization of decision-making authority, but decision rights in either case are reassigned away from the managerial level of the hierarchy. This contrasts with previous studies on information technology that have generally found decentralizing effects on decision-making authority within organizations. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the impact of robots on employment and organizational practices is more nuanced than previous studies have shown"--Abstract, page 5.

Permanent link to this Catalogue record:
publications.gc.ca/pub?id=9.892122&sl=0

• MARC XML format
• MARC HTML format

Request alternate formats