The Effects of New Emerging Technologies on Human Resources : Emergence of Industry 4.0, a Necessary Evil?

Abstract

Based on dynamic capability theory and existing literature, the study empirically investigates the effects of new emerging technologies on human resources; to know if the emergence of Industry 4.0 is a necessary evil or not. Descriptive research design with deductive qualitative analysis (DQA) method was used to analyse data obtained from 6 companies in Norway. Consistent with the two hypotheses deduced in our study, results confirmed in the first place that new emerging technologies have positive effect on human resources productivity. Secondly, new emerging technologies have potential negative challenges on human resources in term of unemployment in the future. We identified that the Industry 4.0 is still at the development stage and superficially conflicting. The implication is that Industry 4.0 is a necessary evil and required more research studies. Keywords: Industry 4.0, Emerging technologies, Dynamic capability theory, Human resources productivity.