Case Study: Automation's Effect on Corporate Citizenship in Business

This case study examines the impact of automation on corporate citizenship behavior, drawing from a Korean case study to analyze its effects on employee motivation, productivity, and overall business performance. The assignment explores how automation in business processes can lead to changes in employee perception, potentially affecting their commitment, morale, and overall productivity. The study highlights the debate surrounding automation, considering both its potential benefits and disadvantages. The author provides their opinions on the issue, suggesting that while automation enhances technical abilities, other factors, including environmental and leadership aspects, also significantly influence employee performance. The conclusion emphasizes the need for further research to fully understand the complex relationship between automation and corporate citizenship, encouraging managers to consider both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation when implementing automation strategies. The assignment concludes that managers should not shy away from automation for fear of reduced performance and productivity, and that more research is needed to determine the full extent of its effects.

The Effect of Automation on Corporate Citizenship Behavior
Case Study
May 04, 2018
1000 Words
Name
University

Introduction
Automation of business processes has become one of the major changes in the modern day
business organizations. The term means incorporation of computer technology to the business
processes such as production and distribution of the produced commodities. There are various
reasons as to why most of the business firms are opting for this approach aiming them
improving productivity as well as quality service provision and saving time. The approach
has proven to have some impacts to the corporate citizenship of the affected staff1. Corporate
citizenship means the “legal status of a corporation in the jurisdiction in which it was
incorporated.” 2 The main aim of this assignment is to explore the impacts that come along to
corporate citizenship behavior as a result of automation. The paper will summarize the
findings and opinions of a Korean case study, opinions and later cine into a conclusion.
A summary of findings
The case study has found that automation in business organizations has had several effects.
Some of them are a reduction of the staff as well as other major changes to the entire
industry. It was also found that automatic will affect the employee’s perception of the firm
thereby affecting their contingency, motivation as well as productivity. That has resulted in
large effects on issues relating to competitiveness and performance of the firm, something
that has made it become a vital issue for managers. The effect of automation on corporate
1 Meuse, Kagan. "Announced layoffs: Their effect on corporate financial performance.”
(2015) 56 Human Resource Management 44-56.
2 Gajjar, S. “Investigation of automation strategy and its effect on assembly cost: A case study
on the ball pen assembly line.” 2016 45(7) International Journal of Current Engineering and
Technology 27-34.

citizenship is evident on low workforce productivity and decline in their morale3. The case
study also found that it was indisputably true that automation has created a negative working
environment for the workforce in the firm. In consideration of the Korean case, it was
deduced that automation is responsible for the change of staff's motivation drive. That
implied that even though automation brings about the ease of business operations, it's not
positively welcomed by the workforce.
The study also found that Korean companies are widely associated with immense corporate
citizenship. These companies have also registered declined performance resulting from
refused motivation from the side of the workforce. It has been found that the source of
motivation decline is directly linked to the automation of business processes in the company.
As a result of reduced motivation, therefore, the performance of the employees has
considerably gone down. Because productivity is dependent on the performance from the side
of the workforce, it has also immensely gone down. This fact brings about a conclusion that
the general implication of reduced productivity may be directly linked to automation of
business processes. Overall, it has been found that automation generally worsens the working
conditions of the employees in a certain firm4.The study also found that whether or not to
embrace the automation has a real debate for quite some time due to factors such as
uncertainty on whether the same would bring more benefits than disadvantages to the firm or
3 Lucas, W. “A policy-driven method for IT infrastructure selection in power distribution
automation system.” (2014) 36 International Review of Electrical Engineering 49-65.
4 Goddard, C. “Automation bias: a systematic review of frequency, effect mediators, and
mitigators.” (2015) 23 Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 37-50.

not. The study found that most of the changes occurring in the contemporary firms are as a
result of automation of business processes.
A summary of my opinions
Regarding the issue of performance, the available literature by different authors is divided
with this author arguing this way and that author arguing that way. Some describe various
concepts of motivation while others attach motivation to leadership theory. That diversity
creates a doubt as to whether low productivity is solely as a result of automation as a result of
a mixture of other internal or external factors. Out of all the literature available, I would
choose to agree with the proposition that performance comes along as a result of several
environmental factors among the leadership. In this case, I would certainly say that
automation is not one of the factors that affect performance. While Choi has come up with
precise arguments stipulating the exact relationship between productivity and automation, he
has unfortunately not been able to garner enough evidence to support his arguments5.
Opinionatedly, the case of Korean companies in particular and can therefore not be used as a
universal indication of the link between automation and productivity. The case is particular to
technology firms, and therefore it proves to be a little case tone applied to other firms6.
Therefore, the situation is very doubtful, and this prompts further research on the topic.
5 Fiedler, C. “An empirical study of information technology-enabled business process
redesign and corporate competitive strategy.” (2017) 76 European Journal of Information
Systems 34-56.
6 Gompers, J. “The determinants of corporate venture capital success: Organizational
structure, incentives, and complementarities.” (2013) 17 In Concentrated corporate
ownership 16-35.

According to the experience that I have as a result of working in an insurance company for a
decade, motivation can take two forms, extrinsic and intrinsic. This aspect of motivation has
not been handled.
In my view, performance is a very complex issue that cannot just be attached to automation.
None should argue that performance of the employees of certain firms is solely affected by
automation, not even one should argue in that perspective because there is no solid evidence
to prove such7. According to the experience that I have, I would, therefore, conclude that
automation enhances technical abilities while motivation is "far greater achievement.”8
Therefore, the work of Choi does not conform to that of other writes. As a result, I would,
therefore, say that productivity is not solely dependent on automation as it has been made to
seem.
Conclusion
From the literature reviewed above, it has been evident that different authors have different
views regarding the impact of automation on corporate citizenship. While most of them argue
that automation of business processes in a firm will lead to the declined motivation of
employees thereby affecting the performance of employees, it remains an unjustified truth. It,
therefore, becomes imperative to conduct further research on the study topic to figure out
who was correct and who was fumbling. A fact that ought to be appreciated is that
performance of employees in their firm depends on several other environmental factors other
7 Hirschheim, A. “The effect of a priori views on the social implications of computing: the
case of office automation.” (2016) ACM Computing Surveys 37-44.
8 Konings, F. “The effect of E-business on corporate performance: firm-level evidence for
Belgium.” (2016) 66 De Economist 67-84.

than the mere automation. Even though we’ve been made to believe that productivity will be
lowered by automation, managers should not shy away from applying automation to their
companies with the fear of registering low productivity. They should acknowledge the fact
that motivation is both intrinsic and extrinsic. Conclusively, none should be compelled to
shun automation plans for fear of reduced performance and productivity.

References
Meuse, Kagan. "Announced layoffs: Their effect on corporate financial performance.” (2015)
56 Human Resource Management 44-56.
Gajjar, S. “Investigation of automation strategy and its effect on assembly cost: A case study
on the ball pen assembly line.” 2016 45(7) International Journal of Current
Engineering and Technology 27-34.
Lucas, W. “A policy-driven method for IT infrastructure selection in power distribution
automation system.” (2014) 36 International Review of Electrical Engineering 49-65.
Goddard, C. “Automation bias: a systematic review of frequency, effect mediators, and
mitigators.” (2015) 23 Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 37-
50.
Fiedler, C. “An empirical study of information technology-enabled business process redesign
and corporate competitive strategy.” (2017) 76 European Journal of Information
Systems 34-56.
Gompers, J. “The determinants of corporate venture capital success: Organizational structure,
incentives, and complementarities.” (2013) 17 In Concentrated corporate
ownership 16-35.
Hirschheim, A. “The effect of a priori views on the social implications of computing: the case
of office automation.” (2016) ACM Computing Surveys 37-44.
Konings, F. “The effect of E-business on corporate performance: firm-level evidence for
Belgium.” (2016) 66 De Economist 67-84.