Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of
technological change on workforce structures and industries.
Previous studies forecasted the impact of automation on jobs
and categories of jobs, but did not deal with the structure of
organisations, particularly levels of work. This study applied
Jaques’ Stratified Systems Theory model of job analysis to
identify occupational groups with higher susceptibility to
job automation and project changes in workforce structure
for various industries. It was found that automation would
shift lower-level tasks to higher strata of work and that it was
not possible to generalise the impact of automation across
industries, as there would be differences in industries and
bureaucracies, which are described here.