IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i15p2670-d251755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Negative Influences of the 4th Industrial Revolution on the Workplace: Towards a Theoretical Model of Entropic Citizen Behavior in Toxic Organizations

Author

Listed:
  • David. A. L. Coldwell

    (School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa)

Abstract

The 4th industrial revolution, referred to as a ‘second coming’ of the ‘digital era,’ has introduced both positive and negative effects on the workplace. While digitalization and automation have taken the drudgery out of work for some and released them to enjoy qualitative improvements at work and higher salaries, others have been thrust into low-paying work and unemployment with negative effects on their well-being and mental health. In many cases stress and threats of job loss created by digital era automation have generated negative workplace behavior and workplace outcomes. The 4th industrial revolution and its burgeoning information technology have presented widespread access to information to stakeholders and the general public about organizational business and environmental performance. This open access to information has driven toxic business leaders to maintain company profitability and environmental sustainability by pressuring employees to find solutions to difficult organizational problems with short timelines attached. Employees often are required to ‘go the extra mile’ to achieve organizational goals through forms of organizational citizenship behavior. Additionally, although organizational citizenship behavior can generate significant benefits for a company, toxic and entropic workplace outcomes can also occur from its more extreme manifestations arising from the stressful circumstances digitalization and automation of work have created. The methodological approach adopted in this paper is a secondary data analysis which uses reliable and valid sources of report documentation to corroborate a theoretical model of organizational citizenship behavior entropy. The theoretical model suggests that extreme forms of organizational citizenship behavior associated with the digital era can create toxic leaders and business organizations that lead to organizational entropy.

Suggested Citation

  • David. A. L. Coldwell, 2019. "Negative Influences of the 4th Industrial Revolution on the Workplace: Towards a Theoretical Model of Entropic Citizen Behavior in Toxic Organizations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2670-:d:251755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2670/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2670/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Axelrod, Robert, 1986. "An Evolutionary Approach to Norms," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1095-1111, December.
    2. Amna Anjum & Xu Ming & Ahmed Faisal Siddiqi & Samma Faiz Rasool, 2018. "An Empirical Study Analyzing Job Productivity in Toxic Workplace Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Paul Litchfield & Cary Cooper & Christine Hancock & Patrick Watt, 2016. "Work and Wellbeing in the 21st Century," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-11, October.
    4. Bruce Gunn, 1968. "The Dynamic Synthesis Theory of Motivation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(10), pages 601-619, June.
    5. Samma Faiz Rasool & Rashid Maqbool & Madeeha Samma & Yan Zhao & Amna Anjum, 2019. "Positioning Depression as a Critical Factor in Creating a Toxic Workplace Environment for Diminishing Worker Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Xiang Zhou & Samma Faiz Rasool & Jing Yang & Muhammad Zaheer Asghar, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship between Despotic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self Efficacy and Leader–Member Exchange," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Ömer Akgün Tekin & Engin Üngüren & Ayşegül Doğrucan & Sevcan Yıldız, 2023. "How Does Organizational Toxicity Affect Depression? A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Samma Faiz Rasool & Mansi Wang & Minze Tang & Amir Saeed & Javed Iqbal, 2021. "How Toxic Workplace Environment Effects the Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Organizational Support and Employee Wellbeing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-17, February.
    4. Samma Faiz Rasool & Mansi Wang & Yanping Zhang & Madeeha Samma, 2020. "Sustainable Work Performance: The Roles of Workplace Violence and Occupational Stress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-12, February.
    5. H Peyton Young, 2014. "The Evolution of Social Norms," Economics Series Working Papers 726, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    6. Fischer, Ilan & Sullivan, Oriel, 2007. "Evolutionary modeling of time-use vectors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 120-143, January.
    7. Runolfsson Solvason Birgir T., 1992. "Ordered Anarchy: Evolution Of The Decentralized Legal Order In The Icelandic Commonwealth," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2-3), pages 1-20, June.
    8. Olav Schram Stokke, 1990. "The Northern Environment: Is Cooperation Coming?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 512(1), pages 58-68, November.
    9. Jung-Kyoo Choi, 2008. "Play locally, learn globally: group selection and structural basis of cooperation," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 239-257, December.
    10. Licht Amir N., 2008. "Social Norms and the Law: Why Peoples Obey the Law," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 715-750, December.
    11. Michael T Gastner & Károly Takács & Máté Gulyás & Zsuzsanna Szvetelszky & Beáta Oborny, 2019. "The impact of hypocrisy on opinion formation: A dynamic model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-21, June.
    12. Mauricio G. Villena & Marcelo J. Villena, 2004. "Evolutionary Game Theory and Thorstein Veblen’s Evolutionary Economics: Is EGT Veblenian?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 585-610, September.
    13. Andrew W. Bausch, 2014. "Evolving intergroup cooperation," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 369-393, December.
    14. Diana Escandon-Barbosa & David Urbano-Pulido & Andrea Hurtado-Ayala, 2019. "Exploring the Relationship between Formal and Informal Institutions, Social Capital, and Entrepreneurial Activity in Developing and Developed Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.
    15. Craig A. Depken & Peter A. Groothuis & Mark C. Strazicich, 2020. "Evolution Of Community Deterrence: Evidence From The National Hockey League," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(2), pages 289-303, April.
    16. Matt Parrett, 2006. "An Analysis of the Determinants of Tipping Behavior: A Laboratory Experiment and Evidence from Restaurant Tipping," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(2), pages 489-514, October.
    17. Yoshihiko Kadoya & Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Somtip Watanapongvanich & Punjapol Binnagan, 2020. "Emotional Status and Productivity: Evidence from the Special Economic Zone in Laos," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, February.
    18. Hanatani, Atsushi & Fuse, Kana, 2010. "Linking Resource Users’ Perceptions and Collective Action in Commons Management," Working Papers 24, JICA Research Institute.
    19. Antoci, Angelo & Galeotti, Marcello & Russu, Paolo & Zarri, Luca, 2006. "Generalized trust and sustainable coexistence between socially responsible firms and nonprofit organizations," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 783-802.
    20. Bruna Maria Rondinone & Antonio Valenti & Valeria Boccuni & Erika Cannone & Pierluca Dionisi & Diana Gagliardi & Fabio Boccuni & Sergio Iavicoli, 2021. "Contribution of ICOH to Address the Different OSH Needs among Countries: Results of a Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, April.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2670-:d:251755. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.