Impact of Automation on Corporate Citizenship Behavior of Affected Staffs

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Impact of automation to corporate
Citizenship Behavior of Affected Staffs
Background
Automation in work place can be traced from early usage of basic hydraulic and pneumatic
systems to today’s modern robots. Automation emerged in 1800s but the widespread of remote
and intelligent technology was experienced in 1980s where organizations started automating
almost everything (Lin et al., 2016). Automation is a technique, system, or method of controlling
or operating a process using automatic means like electronic devices and reduces human
intervention (Frey and Osborne, 2017). Organizations are continually implementing automation
in their processes that has a direct impact to employees and influence their corporate citizenship
behavior. The following write up discusses the impact of automation on corporate citizenship of
affected staff. This will involve explanation, implication, and evaluation of automation to
corporate behavior a case study of robots adoption in workplaces.
Explanation
Robots are highly replacing human capital in organizations. Robots are using computerized
algorithms and artificial intelligence to perform tasks that would otherwise be jobs for human
beings. Robot automations improve speed and quality of goods produced while lowering cost of
production and prices in the market (Lin et al., 2016). Robots are impacting how employees feel
and perceive their roles in organization. Employees think and feel job insecure as there is
likelihood of being retrenched. For instance, in Ocado online supermarket in UK, 1000 robots
replaced human labour and the remaining 200 employees’ behavior is influenced by future
automation (Lin et al., 2016). This shows that robots change employees’ behavior by changing
motivation drive.

Implication for staff performance
Use of robots in organization processes to replace or minimize human intervention has impact to
staff performance. The staff performance is determined by their behavior in the work place
(Cascio, and Montealegre, 2016). When staff feels that their job is threatened, they reduce their
input in terms of creativity, customer relationship, efficiency, and overall effectiveness in the
organization. Robots cannot be creative or effective in customer relationships. According to
Paillé, Raineri, and Valeau, (2015), automation increase resistance to change behaviors staff.
This increases inefficiency causing a decline in staff performance in the workplace. I agree that
replacement of staff with robots increase resistance to change as employees feel their positions in
the organizations are threatened.
Implication for motivation
The effectiveness and efficiency of an organization is determined by employees’ motivation.
Highly motivated employees increase productivity through increased performance. Robots
reduce staff motivation. Employees are not inspired to maintain their tenure in fear they will
eventually lose their job (Frey and Osborne, 2017). Automation decrease employees job security
that increases staff anxiety in the workplace. Rosen, and Wischniewski, (2017), found that robots
replace human being in the organization that limit employees job advancements and recognized.
The employees lack intrinsic drive and are unable to put forth necessary effort in delivering high
performance. You and Robert, (2017) found that whenever employees are engaged and there is
effective leadership, employees does not feel threatened by robots in workplaces. I agree with
Frey and Osborne, (2017) work that employees’ current behavior is influenced by a feeling of
job security in the future.
Evaluation
Different authors are divided on how robots impact corporate citizenship behavior and staff
performance. Cascio, and Montealegre, (2016) and Frey and Osborne, (2017) hold that robots
largely affect staff motivation that has adverse impact on staff performance. This entails that
robots negatively impact corporate citizenship by decreasing morale and increasing job
insecurity. These authors put forward that introduction of robots in an organization reduces staff
effectiveness and efficiency in the workplace. On the other side, Lin et al., (2016) and You and