Future of Work and Employee Empowerment: Evidence from a Decade of Technological Change

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that technological change will significantly affect interactions in the workplace. Even if technological change displaces some jobs, it may have positive effects among the employees’ who remain employed and subsequent new hires. We introduce a new measure of technological change at the county-level using the growth in the stock of intellectual property (IP) across industries. Using new individual-level data between 2008 and 2018 from Gallup, we quantify the effects of technological change on employee empowerment and well-being. Our results suggest that technological change is associated with positive effects on employee empowerment and life satisfaction. The results are strongest in workplaces with trust and more directive managers, suggesting that structured management may be help mediate the emergence of AI and automation.

Keywords: Employee Attitudes; Employee Engagement; Technological Change; Well-being

JEL Classification: J23; J24; G41; I31