The Psycho-Social Impacts of Technological Change in Contemporary Workplaces and Trade Union Responses

In the era of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, “characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the line between the physical, digital and biological spheres” (Schwab, 2016), we increasingly work with machines in both cognitive and manual workplaces. It is widely understood that re-search and experimentation in work design has undergone numerous stages of evolution since “scientific management” began. With influences from bureaucratic and control methods, to corporatist and participative management, to the current trend for “agile” workplaces, we have moved from the predominance of manufacturing to service and digitalized work; a significant range of new technologies in workplaces are changing the way we work in ways hardly seen before.