Workplace robot adoption and its impact on employee perception of job (in)security, engagement and performance

Purpose The adoption of robots at the workplace reshapes work design. This study aims to investigate whether such integration lifts employee performance and clarifies the psychological chain (i.e. employees’ perception of job (in)security, followed by their engagement at work), through which potential gains may emerge. Design/methodology/approach Using the Indian information technology (IT) services as a case of a tech-driven industry in an emerging economy, a two-wave time-lagged survey was conducted to capture the views of 398 IT service professionals employed in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune. The collected data were assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, while the hypothesized relationships were tested using a serial mediation analysis via PROCESS Macro Model 6 in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings This study shows that workplace robot adoption directly improves employee performance and that this effect grows when employees feel secure and (thus) engage more deeply with their work. However, perceived job insecurity erodes engagement and neutralizes performance gains. These results suggest that signaling continued employability is essential to achieve productivity improvements. Originality/value This study extends the theoretical generalizability of cognitive appraisal theory to technology-driven work design involving automation by demonstrating that employees view robots as a threat to their jobs and adjust their engagement at the workplace accordingly. Noteworthily, the model established herein integrates technology adoption and human resource perspectives to equip scholars with a theoretically grounded and empirically validated psychological reasoning that explains employees’ perception and reaction to the adoption of robots at the workplace and, by extension, provides managers a clear message: reassure staff first, then expect enhanced performance.