“It is better than working with a person”: Affective cues and responses to robots at work

Abstract

Robotic technologies are gaining popularity in various industries, and, by implication, academic research anticipates changes in occupations and work tasks, as well as in the labor market in general. In the future, human employees and robots will increasingly work side by side as coworkers. Despite growing interest, little is known about human employees’ experiences of working with robots, and particularly, their emotions toward robots. However, research has shown that emotions – that is, affective responses – play an important role in the use and adoption of technologies. To address this research gap, we conducted a qualitative questionnaire examining the emotions experienced by employees working with robots and the antecedents of those emotions. We found seven affective cues (i.e., triggers of emotions) related to robots that employees responded to with various affective responses: robot as a technological advancement, technical errors and restrictions, robot’s autonomy, robot user’s self-efficacy, emotional connection with a robot, decrease in human–human interaction, and fear of losing jobs. The findings of our study provide insights into employees’ experiences and help organizations smoothen the collaboration between human employees and robots.