Industry 4.0 technologies and organizational design - Evidence from 15 Italian cases

Journal title STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Author/s Emanuela Shaba, Marco Guerci, Silvia Gilardi, Emilio Bartezzaghi
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2019/1
Language English Pages 29 P. 9-37 File size 472 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2019-001001
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Current literature on Industry 4.0 technologies has mainly explored their relationship to the employment dynamics, or to the required competencies and emerging roles. This paper is complementing current literature with a perspective focused on organizational design. The aim of the paper is to explore how organizations are re-designed when Industry 4.0 technologies are implemented. The paper is based on 15 case studies carried out in Italian manufacturing companies and data was collected from 70 semi-structured interviews to relevant roles involved in the implementation of digital technologies. Results show that, when Industry 4.0 technologies are implemented, organizations are redesigned following a employee control-oriented or following a employee commitment-oriented organizational design. These results show that organizational design is the result of decisions, and is not determined by technology. The implications of our findings are presented and discussed.

Keywords: Industry 4.0 technologies, organizational design, control, commitment

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Emanuela Shaba, Marco Guerci, Silvia Gilardi, Emilio Bartezzaghi, Industry 4.0 technologies and organizational design - Evidence from 15 Italian cases in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 1/2019, pp 9-37, DOI: 10.3280/SO2019-001001