The effect of the fourth industrial revolution economies and management

Abstract

The fourth industrial era (or Industry 4.0) refers to the recent trend of massive data collection, analysis and communication with intense process automation. Massive studies have been conducted in this field, though with the main focus on technical details, hardware and software. There still remains a considerable gap in the analysis of potential effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on economies and management. According to recent studies, from 45% to 60% of jobs around the globe are at risk of being automated or computerised. Despite the fact the new jobs such as automation engineers, programmers, data analysts and others are being created, the economies would get significant amount of workforce lacking necessary qualifications. A casual model that shows the effect of the increasing automation on economies has been developed and discusses potential implications. The paper suggests that economies and organisations would have to adopt “Algorithmic Management” to remain competitive in the new digital environment. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.