Robotic Process Automation - Robotic Process Automation and its Effects on Job Characteristics

Sammanfattning: The automation of work tasks has been of high interest for over a century, where different technologies have been developed to serve this purpose. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is one of these technologies, which automates the execution of monotonous and repetitive work tasks previously performed by humans. As a consequence, the employee whose job consists of these work tasks might perceive effects on their job characteristics, since these constitute the essential attributes of a job. The use of RPA is becoming vital for organisations to remain competitive in the long run and is predicted to drastically increase during the upcoming years. In line with this, the aim of the study is to describe what effects the employee perceives on their job characteristics on an individual level, from using RPA. It is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with eleven participants. The study has focused on the five job characteristics: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Conclusively, the study identified that the employee perceives effects on all job characteristics except from feedback, due to the use of RPA. Results from this study give further insights into the employee’s perceived effects from the use of RPA.