Technological innovations and workers’ job insecurity: the moderating role of human resource strategies

In this paper, we empirically assess the impact of firms’ technological innovations on the workers’ perceived probability of job loss. We take advantage of a unique dataset based on a large and representative cross-sectional survey covering several characteristics of Italian workers and their firms. We find that a firm’s technological adoption reduces job insecurity among its surviving workers, and the effect is stronger when the innovation makes tasks simpler and their execution more precise. We also find that the relationship between technological innovation and job insecurity is moderated by human resource strategies, such as training programmes, labour-saving automation and dismissal plans adopted after the introduction of the innovation. Thus, workers’ perceptions of job insecurity vary significantly across innovative firms, and firms’ human resource strategies act as a relevant moderating factors.