Ludivine Martin and Laetitia Hauret’s review of literature on the link between digitalisation and employee job quality and well-being was just published as a chapter of the Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics edited by Klaus F. Zimmermann.
In the chapter, “Digitalization, Job Quality, and Subjective Well-being”, Martin and Hauret examine six facets of job quality studied in the literature: labour income; safety at work; working time and work-life balance; job security; skills development and training; employment-related relationships; and work motivation.
The authors also review the literature on the impacts of digitalisation on subjective well-being, captured by employees’ self-reported feelings at work, such as job satisfaction, occupational stress and life satisfaction. Martin and Hauret highlight the key findings in the literature and identify relevant knowledge.
Martin and Hauret find that there is substantial literature on the links between digitalisation and job quality in terms of labour income and work-life balance. However, studies on the link between digitalisation and safety at work, job security, skills development, relationships at work, work motivation and self-reported feelings remain scarce, and this calls for further empirical research. Regardless of the outcome variable, studies report mixed results. Differences in how digitalization and outcome variables are measured and conceptualised, as well as the national and time context and employees’ characteristics, may explain these divergent results and conclusions.
Martin, L., Hauret, L. (2022). “Digitalization, Job Quality, and Subjective Well-being”. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_388-1.
