Scholarly insights on the future of work
Scholarly articles are written by experts and checked by other experts before they are published. This is called peer review. We picked two. The first one is a real study of people who had to work from home during COVID-19. The second one looks at how AI is changing work — when machines should take over a task, and when they should help the worker instead.
Article 1: Working from home during COVID-19
Authored by: [name]
Source: Wang, Liu, Qian, & Parker (2021), Applied Psychology
What the study found
These researchers studied workers in China who suddenly had to work from home during COVID-19. They asked workers what was hard about it. The workers named four main problems: work spilling into home life, communication that kept going wrong, putting work off, and feeling lonely. The study also found what helped. Workers did better when they had support from other people, freedom to plan their own work, and a workload that was fair (Wang et al., 2021).
Why it matters
Working from home is not good or bad by itself. It depends on how the job is set up. If a company gives remote workers support and some freedom, they do well. If it just sends workers home and checks on them all the time, they struggle. This matters because many people still work from home today.
Course concepts
Self-efficacy — Self-efficacy means a person believes they can do their job well. People who feel this way set bigger goals and keep trying longer. Workers who believed they could handle the change to home work coped better with its problems.
Job satisfaction — Job satisfaction is a worker's good feeling about their job. Support from others and a fair workload helped home workers feel better about their jobs.
Motivation — Motivation is the effort and staying power a person puts into reaching a goal. Workers who could plan their own work stayed more motivated than workers who were controlled and checked all the time.
Article 2: AI at work — replace people or help people?
Authored by: [name]
Source: Raisch & Krakowski (2021), Academy of Management Review
What the article says
This article explains two ways companies use AI. The first way is automation: the machine takes over a task that a person used to do. The second way is augmentation: the machine works with the person and helps them do the task better. The writers say the two ways cannot really be split apart. A tool that helps a worker today can later be used to replace that worker. If a company only tries to replace people, things go badly over time. The best results come when companies use both ways together, on purpose (Raisch & Krakowski, 2021).
Why it matters
AI will keep changing jobs. Leaders have to choose how to use it. If they use AI only to cut workers, workers will fear it and fight it. If they use it to help workers do better work, the company and the workers can both gain.
Course concepts
Leadership — Leaders make the big choices about how work is done. Choosing how to use AI — to replace workers or to help them — is a leadership choice that affects every worker.
Empowerment — Empowerment means workers feel they can act and make decisions. AI that helps a worker gives them better information, so they can make better decisions. AI that only watches or replaces workers takes that feeling away.
Create Your Own Website With Webador