Human Augmentation Technologies for Employee Well-Being: A Research and Development Agenda

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the style of work. In adapting to the changing work environment, human augmentation technologies (HAT) can provide employees with new options to support their work. However, the agenda for research and development of HAT for the new normal is still unclear. In this study, we set two research questions: (i) what type of technology demand has emerged among employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (ii) what is the nature of job satisfaction experienced by employees during the COVID-19 pandemic? This study aims to clarify the technology demand and job satisfaction of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed data from in-depth interviews with employees based on a grounded theory approach to answer the research questions and proposed an agenda for the research and development of HAT to enhance employees’ wellbeing in this new normal based on the crosspoint of technology demand and job satisfaction. The theoretical contribution of this study is the development of models of technology demand and job satisfaction of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The practical contribution is the development of a crosspoint framework to enable the development of HAT to support work while considering their impact on employees’ wellbeing.

Improving digital work experience: an experimental investigation of IT identity and organization support

“…The increasing use of digital work raises new demands on individuals in their endeavors to deliver their work commitments remotely (Richter, 2020;Deng et al, 2023). It, for example, requires individuals to use digital technologies, new apps and digital platforms (Ho et al, 2022;Ng et al, 2022) to work more efficiently or creatively within the same period of time, or to work remotely in social isolation (Connolly, 1988;Hislop et al, 2015;Nakro sien_ e et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2021;. As a result, personal resources that are effective in traditional work environments may not be sufficient to handle these new demands (Madero G omez et al, 2020).…”

Metaverse in the Virtual Workplace

“…It is also unclear what factors influence successful collaboration in the midst of a metaverse. Based on research, it is known what factors help to enhance the productivity of virtual teams-for example, knowledge (Bennet, 2022;Choi, 2022;Davis et al, 2009;Gilson et al, 2015;Schouten et al, 2016;Tunk & Kumar, 2021), autonomy (Moe et al, 2010), creativity (Anderson et al, 2014;Torres-Coronas & Gascó-Hernández, 2009), trust (Jimenez et al, 2017), communication (Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1999;Purvanova et al, 2020) or mental health (Glazer et al, 2012;Ho et al, 2022). However, whether these factors also can be applied in a metaverse environment remains unclear.…”

“…However, the question remains how the immersive environment of the metaverse can be supported to enhance the performance of virtual teams. Health is addressed in the metaverse both in terms of physical health-for example, ergonomics of the working environment (Kačerová et al, 2022;Mcgill et al, 2020) and mental health (Ho et al, 2022). Mystakidis (2022) claims that the metaverse is facing several challenges such as the physical wellbeing of users, psychology (such as information overload).…”

Social Lab: Toward Value-Driven R&D&I in Collaboration with Citizens

“…For example, human augmentation technology (HAT) has attracted attention in industries as a novel means to enhance value creation (Garry & Harwood, 2019;Raisamo et al, 2019). HAT like virtual reality (VR), avatar robots, and multimodal interaction technologies enhances humans' physical and cognitive capabilities (Ho et al, 2022;Raisamo et al, 2019). HAT has a strong potential to change our ways of living and working, both positively and negatively (Ho et al, 2022;Kishita et al, 2022).…”

“…HAT like virtual reality (VR), avatar robots, and multimodal interaction technologies enhances humans' physical and cognitive capabilities (Ho et al, 2022;Raisamo et al, 2019). HAT has a strong potential to change our ways of living and working, both positively and negatively (Ho et al, 2022;Kishita et al, 2022). Hence, R&D organization should conduct R&D&I focusing on the values of citizens and value creation processes.…”