IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wzbgwp/spiii2022301.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring work and workers: Wearables and digital assistance systems in manufacturing and logistics

Author

Listed:
  • Krzywdzinski, Martin
  • Pfeiffer, Sabine
  • Evers, Maren
  • Gerber, Christine

Abstract

The smart glove or smart data glasses: Digitalization of work means that technology is moving closer to the bodies of employees. It can make movements, vital signs and even emotions visible. Technologies which many people use privately to monitor their sporting activities or health opens up a new dimension of control in the workplace, but also the possibility of supporting employees in complex work processes. Based on case studies of companies in manufacturing and logistics as well as a survey of employees, this study provides insights into operational use cases of wearables and the assessments of employees. It reveals contradictory experiences and a high importance of co-determination and co-design of new technologies by employees and works councils as a condition for using new technologies for improving work quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Krzywdzinski, Martin & Pfeiffer, Sabine & Evers, Maren & Gerber, Christine, 2022. "Measuring work and workers: Wearables and digital assistance systems in manufacturing and logistics," Discussion Papers, Research Group Globalization, Work, and Production SP III 2022-301, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbgwp:spiii2022301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/251912/1/1797765736.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alex J. Wood, 2021. "Algorithmic Management: Consequences for Work Organisation and Working Conditions," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2021-07, Joint Research Centre.
    2. Krzywdzinski, Martin & Jo, Hyung Je, 2022. "Skill formation, automation and governance: comparing German and Korean automotive manufacturers in Central-Eastern Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(1), pages 115-136.
    3. Evers, Maren & Krzywdzinski, Martin & Pfeiffer, Sabine, 2018. "Designing wearables for use in the workplace: The role of solution developers," Discussion Papers, Research Group Globalization, Work, and Production SP III 2018-301, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Karen Jaehrling & Jérôme Gautié & Maarten Keune & Bas A.S. Koene & Coralie Perez, 2018. "The digitisation of warehousing work. Innovations, employment and job quality in French, German and Dutch retail logistics companies," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01884127, HAL.
    5. Thomas Haipeter, 2020. "Digitalisation, unions and participation: the German case of ‘industry 4.0’," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 242-260, May.
    6. Jacques Bélanger & Paul Edwards, 2007. "The Conditions Promoting Compromise in the Workplace," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 45(4), pages 713-734, December.
    7. Matuschek, Ingo & Kleemann, Frank, 2018. "„Was man nicht kennt, kann man nicht regeln“ Betriebsvereinbarungen als Instrument der arbeitspolitischen Regulierung von Industrie 4.0 und Digitalisierung," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 71(3), pages 227-234.
    8. Kate Mulholland & Paul Stewart, 2014. "Workers in Food Distribution: Global Commodity Chains and Lean Logistics," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 534-558, August.
    9. David F. Noble, 1978. "Social Choice in Machine Design: The Case of Automatically Controlled Machine Tools, and a Challenge for Labor," Politics & Society, , vol. 8(3-4), pages 313-347, September.
    10. Martin Krzywdzinski, 2021. "Automation, digitalization, and changes in occupational structures in the automobile industry in Germany, Japan, and the United States: a brief history from the early 1990s until 2018 [Managing fle," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(3), pages 499-535.
    11. Paul Edwards & Jacques Bélanger & Martyn Wright, 2006. "The Bases of Compromise in the Workplace: A Theoretical Framework," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(1), pages 125-145, March.
    12. Bispinck, Reinhard & Dribbusch, Heiner & Schulten, Thorsten, 2010. "German collective bargaining in a European perspective: Continuous erosion or re-stabilisation of multi-employer agreements?," WSI Working Papers 171, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    13. Klippert, Jürgen & Niehaus, Moritz & Gerst, Detlef, 2018. "Mit digitaler Technologie zu Guter Arbeit? Erfahrungen mit dem Einsatz digitaler Werker-Assistenzsysteme," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 71(3), pages 235-240.
    14. Baethge-Kinsky, Volker & Marquardsen, Kai & Tullius, Knut, 2018. "Perspektiven industrieller Instandhaltungsarbeit," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 71(3), pages 174-181.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mollen, Anne & Hondrich, Lukas, 2023. "From risk mitigation to employee action along the machine learning pipeline: A paradigm shift in European regulatory perspectives on automated decision-making systems in the workplace," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 278, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krzywdzinski, Martin & Gerst, Detlef & Butollo, Florian, 2022. "Promoting human-centred AI in the workplace. Trade unions and their strategies for regulating the use of AI in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue OnlineFir, pages 1-1.
    2. Martin Krzywdzinski & Detlef Gerst & Florian Butollo, 2023. "Promoting human-centred AI in the workplace. Trade unions and their strategies for regulating the use of AI in Germany," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(1), pages 53-70, February.
    3. Armanda Cetrulo & Giovanni Dosi & Angelo Moro & Linnea Nelli & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2023. "Automation, digitalization and decarbonization in the European automotive industry: a roadmap towards a just transition," LEM Papers Series 2023/36, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Virginia Doellgast & Ines Wagner & Sean O’Brady, 2023. "Negotiating limits on algorithmic management in digitalised services: cases from Germany and Norway," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(1), pages 105-120, February.
    5. Daniel Nyberg & Graham Sewell, 2014. "Collaboration, Co-operation or Collusion? Contrasting Employee Responses to Managerial Control in Three Call Centres," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 308-332, June.
    6. Mark Bray & John W. Budd & Johanna Macneil, 2020. "The Many Meanings of Co‐Operation in the Employment Relationship and Their Implications," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 114-141, March.
    7. Paul Edwards & Andy Hodder, 2022. "Conflict and control in the contemporary workplace: Structured antagonism revisited," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 220-240, May.
    8. Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2022. "Toward a Socioeconomic Company-Level Theory of Automation at Work," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 2(1), pages 1-1.
    9. Knut Laaser, 2016. "‘If you are having a go at me, I am going to have a go at you’: the changing nature of social relationships of bank work under performance management," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(6), pages 1000-1016, December.
    10. Valeria Pulignano & Marco Hauptmeier & Dorien Frans, 2023. "Determinants of union strategies towards the twin digital and green transitions in the German and Belgian automotive industry," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(1), pages 121-138, February.
    11. Bill Harley & Leisa Sargent & Belinda Allen, 2010. "Employee responses to ‘high performance work system’ practices: an empirical test of the disciplined worker thesis," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(4), pages 740-760, December.
    12. Caroline Lloyd & Jonathan Payne, 2021. "Fewer jobs, better jobs? An international comparative study of robots and ‘routine’ work in the public sector," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 109-124, March.
    13. Amanda Pyman & Peter Holland & Julian Teicher & Brian K. Cooper, 2010. "Industrial Relations Climate, Employee Voice and Managerial Attitudes to Unions: An Australian Study," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(2), pages 460-480, June.
    14. Surhan Cam & Serap Palaz, 2023. "Mutual interests management with a purposive approach: Evidence from the Turkish shipyards for an amorphous impact model between (subjective) well‐being and performance," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 40-70, January.
    15. Fabio Montobbio & Jacopo Staccioli & Maria Enrica Virgillito & Marco Vivarelli, 2022. "The empirics of technology, employment and occupations: lessons learned and challenges ahead," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0028, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    16. Janine Berg & Francis Green & Laura Nurski & David A Spencer, 2023. "Risks to job quality from digital technologies: Are industrial relations in Europe ready for the challenge?," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 29(4), pages 347-365, December.
    17. Fedorets Alexandra & Adriaans Jule & Kirchner Stefan & Giering Oliver, 2022. "Data on Digital Transformation in the German Socio-Economic Panel," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 242(5-6), pages 691-705, December.
    18. Daniel Puente-Rodríguez, 2010. "Biotechnologizing Jatropha for local sustainable development," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(3), pages 351-363, September.
    19. John Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Katalin Evers & Lutz Bellmann, 2014. "Indicative and Updated Estimates of the Collective Bargaining Premium in Germany," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 125-156, January.
    20. Nelson, John P., 2023. "Differential “progressibility” in human know-how: A conceptual overview," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    technological change; digitalization; manufacturing; logistics; work organization; skills; works councils; Technologischer Wandel; Digitalisierung; Fertigung; Logistik; Arbeitsorganisation; Qualifikationen; Betriebsräte;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbgwp:spiii2022301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gawzbde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.