TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT ANXIETY SCALE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

In the post-digital ecosystem, production methods are changing radically. Thus, the need for humans dramatically decreases. Jobs in various sectors have become vulnerable due to accelerated automation. It is expected that advances in artificial intelligence technology, in particular, will cause unprecedented amount of job loss. Furthermore, unemployment would trigger other problems in economy. This can be regarded as the vicious circle of digital economy. This economical phenomenon causes anxiety in the mind of the employees, and this negative perception regarding technology may exert pernicious effect on the motivation, performance and commitment of the employees. Therefore, from the angle of management, need for measuring this perception has emerged. Within this context, the aim of this paper to develop a scale to measure the technology-induced unemployment perception of employees. As a result of the analyses, Technological Unemployment Anxiety scale was developed with the following sub-dimensions: (1) Lack of Technical Skill, (2) Incremental Technological Improvements and (3) Technological Disruption.