International Perspectives on Managing Digitalization and Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is considered to be an important aspect in the productivity of a firm’s workforce. The speeding up of digitalization and technological advances adds momentum to the managerial issues of job satisfaction. This contribution identifies strategic options for management to benefit from digitalization. To explore empirically possible links and options, we draw on job satisfaction data from the International Social Survey Programme and on data from the World Bank’s Digital Adoption Index. Our empirical analysis, based on data of more than 180 economies and more than 55,000 individuals, indicates that, in some countries, firms are more successful in delivering on job satisfaction with digitalization than in others. Key to this result is that a higher degree of digital adoption significantly reduces job satisfaction at the individual level: While employees become less satisfied, they put a higher weight on the income dimension of their job; digitalization increases the share of employees that see a job just as a way of earning money. Both results point at the leverage of leadership at the level of the firm. Important options in human resource management are thus the package of pecuniary and non-pecuniary compensation, the composition of the workforce (age structure, education), opportunities for advancement and income perspectives, and age-specific employee development. Consequently, these channels are crucial for management when implementing digitalization at the level of the firm and for reaping the digital dividend.