Less (empirically) researched are the consequences of robotization on the nature of work, employee well-being and performance (Barley, Citation2015 Cascio & Montealegre, Citation2016 Ghislieri et al., Citation2018 Halteh et al., Citation2018 Parker & Grote, Citation2020), even though the quality of working life and employee engagement are important perspectives for HR (Boxall & Purcell, Citation2015). A significant part of this interest has been on the effects of technology for HRM (Vrontis et al., Citation2021), such as the research on e-HRM (Bondarouk et al., Citation2017), and potential applications of the Internet of Things (Strohmeier, Citation2020). In HRM, however, the role of technology only started to gain more interest since the late 2000s (Cooke et al., Citation2021). Moreover, the effect of technology on work has been studied since the Industrial Revolution when the introduction of machines, such as the conveyor belt, created work characterized by low autonomy and low complexity (Davis, Citation1966 Fraser, Citation1947 Hackman & Lawler, Citation1971). Robotization -using robots in business processes to execute (part of the) work previously executed by employees- is not something new robots have been used in manufacturing for decades (Cascio & Montealegre, Citation2016). We argue that HRM should get involved in the topic of robotization to ensure that well-considered choices about work and working conditions are made. Despite their sophistication, robots are unlikely to take over complete jobs (Davenport & Kirby, Citation2015 Vrontis et al., Citation2021), and human employees remain crucial to obtain productivity and quality (Parker & Grote, Citation2020). Introducing robots in the workplace, means that work will be divided between employees and robots (DeCanio, Citation2016 Parker & Grote, Citation2020). cobots) such as ‘Baxter’: an industrial robot designed to help employees with a variety of tasks (Fitzgerald, Citation2013), and cleaning robots like ‘Intellibot’ that keep airports clean and tidy. Today’s advanced robots function in a wide variety of contexts from military robots like ‘Boomer’ designed to detonate explosives on battlefields (Garber, Citation2013) to collaborative robots (i.e. We broadly define robots as all embodied automated systems. The amount of work executed by robots is expected to almost double over the coming decades (World Economic Forum, Citation2018) with robots increasingly entering workplaces as part of the ‘4 th industrial revolution’ (Cascio & Montealegre, Citation2016). We propose that understanding the consequences of robots on work design supports HR professionals to help managing this transition by both giving relevant input on a strategic level about the importance of work design and advocating for employees and their involvement. Warehouses that lack attention to the quality of work may risk ending up with the negative effects for employees, such as simplification and intensification of work, and reduced autonomy. The positive effects we identified are reduced physical and cognitive demands and opportunities for upskilling. Although the other warehouses did not, sometimes their work design still benefitted from robotization. Only two warehouses used a bottom-up approach, where employees were involved in the implementation and quality of work was considered important. We found that all warehouses robotized tasks based on technological functionality to increase efficiency, which sometimes created jobs consisting of ‘left-over tasks’. In this comparative case study, we explore how robotization changed the work design of order pickers and order packers in eight logistic warehouses. Robots are increasingly used in a variety of work environments, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to how robots change work.
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