Employees often are tasked with collaborating machines in the digital age; however, many may not be as accepting in fear of automation taking over their current position in the future.

The proposal seeks to see if income plays a role in employee perceptions of technology in the workplace, most research has covered perceptions of technology in general but had not investigated individual income, so this study seeks to research it to help close the gap.

 

Database: Computer Source

Search 1: “Employees” AND “Workplace Technology”

• Boolean Term: AND
• Limiters: Full-text, Peer Reviewed.
• Results: 9
• *This search was somewhat helpful as it helped me find two topics that seemed relevant to my topic. The remaining results did not seem relevant to my study, but they did utilize the search terms within the articles. I believe that more specific search terms or adding another clarifying term might fix this issue. I did manage to find two new sources out of the nine results, so I consider this search somewhat helpful for my proposal. *

Korunka, C., Zauchner, S., & Weiss, A. (1997). New information technologies, job profiles, and external workload as predictors of subjectively experienced stress and dissatisfaction at work. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 9(4), 407-424. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327590ijhc0904_5

 

Elias, S., Smith, W., & Barney, C. (2012). Age as a moderator of attitude towards technology in the workplace: Work motivation and overall job satisfaction. Behaviour & Information Technology, 31(5), 453–467. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2010.513419

Annotated Bibliography #1

Elias, Smith, and Barney studied the relationship between age and an individual’s perception of technology in the workplace by utilizing a questionnaire to determine if different age groups felt differently about technology. They surveyed approximately 612 adults in the study who were employed and tried to compare the results between Gen X, and the Baby Boomer generation. The results found that age did have a significant impact on technology perceptions as those who were more accepting of technology were more satisfied in the workplace, utilizing these newer technologies.  It also found that individuals between 18-33 years old had more positive perceptions of technology than their older counterparts. The authors remain unbiased as they present this information, offering suggestions on how to ensure job satisfaction for older workers, and calling for further research to be done on the topic. I believe this will be useful for my proposal as it proves that those who have negative perceptions of technology could be fearful of replacement and become dissatisfied with their current position, and income could play a potential role in this as an unknown variable that has not been addressed yet.

 

Search 2: “Employee Perceptions” AND “Technology”

• Boolean Term: AND
• Limiters: Full Text, Peer Reviewed.
• Results: 8
• *The search results presented articles that discussed how employees perceived other employees rather than focusing on their perceptions towards technology. I feel this search was less helpful than some of my previous searches. I did manage to find one article that tested multiple variables to see if individual characteristics had an impact on how workers perceived new technologies in the workplace. This search showed that it is important to be more specific with my subject terms. These terms may not be the best to use in my future searches. *

 

Kuo, Y. K., & Ye, K.D. (2010). How employees’ perception of information technology application and their knowledge management capacity influence organizational performance. Behaviour & Information Technology, 29(3), 287–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290701852166

Annotated Bibliography #2

Kuo and Ye performed a study on about 1,400 employees in Taiwan to see if a worker’s gender, work experience, hierarchy status in the workplace, and the implementation method of a newer technology impacted employee perceptions of technology. The study found that males seemed to be more aware of the positive potential of technology than their female counterparts, and they often had more freedom along with their status in the workplace. A worker’s perception can be affected based on their awareness of the newer technology, showing fewer negative perceptions associated with automated technologies. It was also proven that all the variables had an impact on an employee’s perception of newer technology, and the authors remained unbiased as they showed their results and cited previous sources that had similar results.  I believe that this source is useful for my proposal because it shows potential variables that have an impact on employee perceptions of technology and shows that income is one variable that has not been studied extensively along with workplace automation.

 

Database: Business Source Premier

Search 3: “Employee Attitudes” AND “Technology”

• Boolean Term: AND
• Limiters: Full-text, Peer reviewed, Academic Journals, Limited to Subject Terms [SU for both Employee Attitudes and Technology].
• Results: 116
• *Most of the search results provided the subject terms that I was looking for, but upon further inspection the results did not appear to provide anything related to my proposal. Some of the titles seemed to have potential, but further inspection proved that the titles had been misleading and were not relevant to my proposal. This search was somewhat helpful because I found one new article out of all the results, but it seemed that I kept running into similar sources or information that had nothing to do with my topic. This search proved that utilizing different subject terms would produce more relevant results. *

 

Walstrom, K. A., & Duffy, T. J. (2003). Implications regarding computer technology attitudes of new employees. Information Systems Management, 20(2), 26-31. https://doi.org/10.1201/1078/43204.20.2.20030301/41467.5

Annotated Bibliography #3

Walstrom and Duffy conducted a study on students who were going to become entry level employees and tried to rate their attitudes regarding computer technology.  They utilized data from two different student groups from 1988 and 2001 and used a questionnaire that determined their general attitude towards computer technology, but the flaw in this study was that the group in 1988 had about 200 students while the other had double that amount. The 2001 group showed less of an acceptance of computer technology in comparison to the 1988 group. Walstrom and Duffy did remain unbiased as they offered suggestions to fix this acceptance issue and had set up an effective survey design for the study, but the number gap between the two groups is concerning. I believe this study could be useful to my proposal by allowing me to get more ideas for a questionnaire design to measure attitudes towards automation in a workplace setting and to see if different income groups have an impact on an employee’s attitude towards technology.

 

Database: Academic Search Premier

Search 4: “Job satisfaction” AND “Automation”

• Boolean Term: AND
• Limiters: Peer Reviewed, Full text, Academic Journals.
• Results: 10
• *I feel that this search was beneficial because it allowed me to find a new document that is open access. All I had to do was try out a different database than the three that I had used previously. The main three databases that I have been using the most were Business Source Premier, Computer Source, and Computer Science Collection. The remaining results were not relevant to my proposal upon further inspection of the articles. *

 

Schwabe, H., & Castellacci, F. (2020). Automation, workers’ skills, and job satisfaction. PLoS ONE, 15(11), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242929

Annotated Bibliography #4

Schwabe and Castellacci conducted a study to find out how automation impacts an employee’s job satisfaction and how it impacts low skill versus high skill workers. They surveyed several thousand Norwegian employees, identifying their skill group, and rated their satisfaction on a Likert scale of 1 to 5. The authors attempt to make connections between the data results, and the skill levels of workers to determine if automation did impact certain employees differently based on their skill level. The study proved that there is fear of automation present from employees within the workplace, and it is important to note that the low skilled worker group is the majority that feared automation the most.  Schwabe and Castellacci remain unbiased and utilize their research to offer suggestions to remedy this, calling for further research to be done on the issue. The source will be useful to my topic as it provides insight between low and high skill workers along with the potential income variable, where one is paid more than the other and is less likely to be replaced, resulting in more positive perceptions of the technology than those who make less in the workplace.

 

Search 5: “Income” AND “Automation” AND “Innovations”

• Boolean Term: AND
• Limiters: Peer Reviewed, Full text, Academic Journals.
• Results: 3
• *This search was one that I attempted by trying out a new term. I found some relevant information and decided to add limiters to get more specific information. Out of the three results, I found one that related to my topic. This search was extremely helpful as it helped bring forth another relevant article that discussed technology’s impact on income. It was difficult to find studies that tied both concepts together especially when it came to the workplace, so finding this result was extremely helpful for my proposal. *

 

Goyal, A., & Aneja, R. (2020). Artificial intelligence and income inequality: Do technological changes and worker’s position matter? Journal of Public Affairs, 20(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2326

 

Annotated Bibliography #5

Goyal and Aneja study the impact of technological advancements on income and if a worker’s position in the workplace matters when it comes to advancements in technology and income inequality. They utilized data worldwide to get a general idea on how automation is impacting income across the globe. The study proved that there is an issue to address when it comes to automation, but automation is not the direct cause of unemployment and income inequality. Technology takes over low skilled jobs which leaves workers without a job, and the advancement automation as a form of job replacement is where the actual problem lies. The authors remain unbiased when they utilize worldwide information, using the data to support their statements and offer suggestions on what could be done to remedy the situation. The source shows that automation does impact the income of employees, especially those who are making less than high skilled employees, and this will aid my proposal that income could be a potential variable that impacts employee perceptions of automation.

 

Have you reached Saturation?

• I have experimented with different databases to see if I found enough information such as Gale OneFile, Academic Search Premier, and the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. I found that most of the information despite having the same subject terms as my other searches did not provide the information that I needed for my proposal. I had to do more digging with these new databases to make sure that I did not miss any information surrounding my current topic. I thought I had enough information until I performed my secondary search and found a few potential articles that could support my research proposal. This secondary search helped determine that I will not find newer information concerning my topic, but it did also help me discover a study that looked at income along with its relationship to technology. I looked further into the document results that the databases have provided me, and I have not been able to find any new information that other studies have not found. I believe in terms of utilizing the library database for academic research that I have reached saturation.