Effects of STARA awareness on the job performance of healthcare providers: the mediating role of qualitative job insecurity

Smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms (STARA) are transforming the practice of healthcare. The phenomenon that many healthcare providers are worried about being replaced by these technologies in the future has attracted the attention of scholars. However, few studies have explored the impact of healthcare providers' STARA awareness on their work outcomes in the medical and healthcare services industry. This study attempts to address this knowledge gap by exploring the effects of STARA awareness on the job performance of healthcare providers and to explore the mediating role of qualitative job insecurity based on the stressor-strain-outcome model. A total of 290 healthcare providers from China were investigated through an online survey. SPSS 23.0 and Mplus 8.0 were used to analyse the collected data. These results showed that healthcare providers' STARA awareness positively affects task performance and contextual performance through qualitative job insecurity. These findings highlight the influence of advanced technologies on healthcare providers and provide guidance for organisations to help them achieve higher job performance.