Digital transformation and industry 4.0 employees: Empirical evidence from top digital nations

Abstract

As the central part of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), Digital Transformation (DT) is being enthusiastically implemented in business organisations. Current DT literature has focused on business and strategy, but little attention has been paid to the organisation's human side. According to the resource-based view (RBV), employees are valuable resources in the DT process, and there is a need to understand how DT affects employee attitudes, psychology, and jobs. Taking a sample (n = 320) of employees working in I4.0, we empirically test our model linking DT with different aspects of employee attitude (job satisfaction, affective commitment), psychology (self-efficacy, resilience), and job-related factors (job engagement and autonomy). The findings reveal that DT significantly affects the attitude, psychology, and job-related factors of employees in I4.0. This study contributes to the dynamic capability theory by discussing the effect of DT on employees' attitudes, psychology, and jobs. This study presents critical implications from both theoretical and practical perspectives along with future research directions.