# Association between exposure to technological advances in the workplace and work engagement: a prospective cohort study

## TL;DR

This study found that exposure to workplace technology is not strongly linked to work engagement, with younger workers showing slightly higher engagement.

## Contribution

The study provides longitudinal evidence that exposure to technological advances is not significantly associated with high work engagement.

## Key findings

- Exposure to technological advances was not significantly associated with work engagement after adjusting for personal and workplace factors.
- Younger workers showed higher work engagement in relation to exposure to technological advances.
- The association between age and exposure to technological advances disappeared after adjusting for baseline work engagement.

## Abstract

Objectives: The study objective was to measure the association between exposure to technological advances and work engagement, adjusting for personal and workplace factors.

Methods: We conducted a nationwide online longitudinal survey study in Japan. The sample was stratified to represent Japanese workforce conditions. Work engagement was measured using the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9. Exposure to technological advances was measured using a single question with Likert scale responses. Industry characteristics that were more/less likely to be replaced by automation were also measured. Linear regression was used for statistical analysis.

Results: There were 16 629 participants. We found that exposure to technological advances was associated with work engagement after adjustment for age, sex, education, income, and industry characteristics. We observed a significant interaction between age and exposure to technological advances (coefficient 0.891, P < .001), and conducted an age-stratified linear regression analysis. The significant association between age and exposure to technological advances reduced as age increased, and disappeared after adjustment for baseline work engagement.

Conclusions: Longitudinal observations showed that exposure to technological advances was not significantly associated with work engagement.

Key points:
What is already known on this topic
Exposure to technological advances likely contributes to negative outcomes such as job insecurity, poor health conditions, and work-related injury or disease.

Exposure to technological advances likely contributes to negative outcomes such as job insecurity, poor health conditions, and work-related injury or disease.

What this study adds
Longitudinal observations showed that exposure to technological advances was not significantly associated with high work engagement.Age moderated the relation between exposure to technological advances and high work engagement; younger workers had higher work engagement.

Longitudinal observations showed that exposure to technological advances was not significantly associated with high work engagement.

Age moderated the relation between exposure to technological advances and high work engagement; younger workers had higher work engagement.

How this study might affect research, practice, or policy
Exposure to technological advances such as artificial intelligence should be carefully implemented over a longer period, as such exposure does not seem to relate positively to work engagement. Other resources are likely to be needed to help employees exposed to technological advances maintain their work engagement.

Exposure to technological advances such as artificial intelligence should be carefully implemented over a longer period, as such exposure does not seem to relate positively to work engagement. Other resources are likely to be needed to help employees exposed to technological advances maintain their work engagement.