Digital technologies are a ubiquitous presence in our lives. Employees can experience a constant bombardment of digital messages, leading to challenges such as work overload, feelings of uncertaint...

Employees’ emotional reactions to digitally enabled work events

Pervasive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and the Internet of Things, despite their great potential for improved workability and well-being of older workers, entail wide ethical concerns. Aligned with these considerations we emphasize the need to present from the viewpoint of ethics the risks of personalized ICT solutions that aim to remedy health and support the well-being of the ageing population at workplaces. The ethical boundaries of digital technologies are opaque. The main motivation is to cope with the uncertainties of workplaces’ digitization and develop an ethics framework, termed SmartFrameWorK, for personalized health support through ICT tools at workplace environments. SmartFrameWorK is built upon a five-dimensional approach of ethics norms: autonomy, privacy, transparency, trustworthiness and accountability to incite trust in digital workplace technologies. A typology underpins these principles and guides the ethical decision-making process with regard to older worker particular needs, context, data type-related risks and digital tools’ use throughout their lifecycle. Risk analysis of pervasive technology use and multimodal data collection, highlighted the imperative for ethically aware practices for older workers' activity and behaviour monitoring. The SmartFrameWorK methodology has been applied in a case study to provide evidence that personalized digital services could elicit trust in users through a well-defined framework. Ethics compliance is a dynamic process from participants’ engagement to data management. Defining ethical determinants is pivotal towards building trust and reinforcing better workability and well-being in older workers.

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Smart Workplaces for older adults: coping ‘ethically’ with technology pervasiveness

Increasingly, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) participate in mainstream employment like typical others, with varied outcomes influenced primarily by the workplace supports they receive. Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by three distinct features: persistent impairments in verbal and/or nonverbal communication, difficulties in forming and maintaining social interactions, and restricted, repetitive behaviors and interests. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is categorized based on the severity level and need for supports: Level 3 (requiring very substantial support), Level 2 (requiring substantial support), and Level 1 (requiring support). These support needs bear on the technologies that they would require for successful work participation. This chapter makes the case that to the extent that people with ASD receive appropriate work participation tools, they would flourish in their work roles, which will be to the mutual benefit of their employer organization. In the fourth industrial age, the tools would be predominantly digital and for greater job content or process accessibility. Job content is about the essential functions of a job. Job processes are the activities involved in implementing a work task. Moreover, the chapter considers occupational health and safety for those with ASD supported by digital technology tools in the context of inclusive human resource management policies and practices. Digital technologies increasingly are utilized for addressing occupational health and safety vulnerabilities from job content or process factors, adding to the wellness of employer organizations. The chapter also indicates present research needs on the work wellness effects of digital technology for use by people with ASD in diverse employment settings that present. This chapter contributes insights on digital technologies for work wellness in people with autism spectrum disorder.

Digital Tools Applications to Occupational Health and Safety for People with Autism

Responding to the challenges of demographic change, a growing number of eHealth solutions are appearing on the market, aiming to enable age-friendly living and working environments. Pervasive sensing and monitoring of workers' health-, behavioural-, emotional- and cognitive status to support their health and workability enable the creation of adaptive work environments and the provision of personalised interventions. However, this technology also introduces new challenges that go beyond user acceptance and privacy concerns. Based on a conceptual investigation and lessons learnt within the SmartWork project (H2020-826343), this paper outlines opportunities and ethical challenges of pervasive sensing technology in the work environment that aims to support active and healthy ageing for office workers in a holistic way, including their values and preferences. Only by identifying those challenges, implicated values and value tensions is it possible to convert them into design opportunities and find innovative ways to address identified tensions. The article outlines steps taken within the project and closes with a reflection on the limits of technological responses to societal problems and the need for regulations and changes on a societal level.

/pdf/opportunities-ethical-challenges-and-value-implications-of-todmdt9p.pdf

Opportunities, ethical challenges, and value implications of pervasive sensing technology for supporting older adults in the work environment

Potential of pervasive computing through embedded systems and Internet technologies: Research of customer perspective

Pervasive technologies reflect a whole ecosystem of information and communication environments, in which computer sensors and other equipment are unified with various objects, people, information, and computers, as well as with the physical environment to transform experiences. With the demographic change, big challenges arise for an ageing working population that may be addressed by the creation of facilitating environments, merging professional and personal needs into smooth and nonintrusive solutions that enhance older workers to stay longer and more productive in the workforce. This paper intends to present a bibliographic review on the state-of-the-art research devoted to the analysis of the use of pervasive technology, referring to the identified pros and cons of its use in the work environment. It will also highlight the most relevant questions identified in literature as influencing acceptance and adhesion of these technologies in the professional context. Finally, there are some reflections already expressed on the specific use of pervasive technologies by older workers, although it is understood that very little and non-specific data is available in this context. For this purpose, the development of project SmartWork (Horizon 2020) will provide new and relevant data on this subject.

Sonja Haansen

Papers

Pervasive technologies applied to the work environment: Implications for end-users: the foreground for SmartWork concerns and requirements