Effort, turnover intention and meaningfulness : the influence of robotic process automation

Abstract

With technological advancements reshaping the way they do business, organisations are determined to understand how their people, process and technology can complement each other to enable high performance. Driving increased effort levels and retaining top talent has become priority, since retention and effort influence positive outcomes. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is encroaching into the work space of humans, restructuring their work and forcing them into intellectual domains that are more value-adding. However, creating synergy between man and machine will determine if effort and retention levels improve. 120 knowledge workers (n=120), whose nature of work ranged from routine and repeatable to abstract and improvisational, responded to an online survey regarding RPA’s impact on their jobs. Using a quantitative approach, the study was focussed on understand whether RPA improved their work meaningfulness and what this meant for their effort levels and turnover intention. Results from a correlation analysis indicated that RPA makes their work more meaningful and reduces their intention to turnover but has no effect on their effort levels, emphasizing the complex nature of discretionary behaviours. A mediated regression analysis further established that meaningfulness partially explains the link that existed between RPA and turnover intention, implying that other reasons may exist for improving retention levels within an RPA context.