Employees are experiencing revolutionary changes with advancements in automatic and intelligent manufacturing under Industry 4.0/5.0. There is no denying that, on the one hand, technologies of Industry 4.0/5.0 have freed employees from heavy manual labour, improved their working environment and reduced the intensity of their work. However, on the other hand, the following challenges such as new work patterns, higher technical requirements and fears induced by unemployment will bring on mental stress for employees. In some cases, these challenges could even endanger their mental health. Hence it is hardly surprising that many employees suffer from work-related mental health conditions. Poor employee mental health can directly lead to negative working statuses such as fatigue, distraction, discomfort and extreme emotions at work, which in turn, could significantly affect their work performance.
Most existing studies on employee mental health and work performance have relied on self-report questionnaires which could cause inevitable subjective bias and memory bias. As a result, this method could impact the reliability of results and conclusions. Recently, emerging technologies such as electroencephalogram (EEG), eye tracking, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), artificial intelligence (AI), big data, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) have demonstrated their potential for addressing the afore-mentioned limitations and are providing deep insights of relationship between employee mental health and work performance for researchers and managers. Consequently, these emerging technologies have attracted considerable attention and efforts worldwide. Despite increasing expectations from these technologies, their application in employee mental health and work performance research remains in infancy. The viability of these emerging technologies has not been fully demonstrated or validated in practice.
To address the research gap, this Research Topic strives to rethink and validate the feasibility and benefits of adopting emerging technologies for investigating and improving employee mental health and work performance. Researchers are encouraged to propose the techniques, directions, strategies, and solutions to improve employee mental health and work performance with emerging technologies under Industry 4.0/5.0.
Authors are invited to present original research or review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts in deploying Industry 4.0/5.0 for employee mental health and work performance improvement. Interdisciplinary and comparative studies are welcomed.
Sub-topics include but are not limited to:
• Solutions to new employee mental health challenges amid the era of Industry 4.0/5.0 featuring emerging technologies;
• The impacts of employee mental health on work performance;
• Real-time employee mental health and work performance assessment systems with wearable sensors and other emerging technologies;
• Empirical studies for validating the feasibility and benefits of adopting emerging technologies for improving employee mental health and work performance;
• Public willingness to use related emerging technologies in workplace
• Trends and strategies in promoting emerging technologies in improving employee mental health and work performance;
• Social-technical issues (e.g., Human-technology interaction) in adopting emerging technologies for improving mental health and work performance.
Employees are experiencing revolutionary changes with advancements in automatic and intelligent manufacturing under Industry 4.0/5.0. There is no denying that, on the one hand, technologies of Industry 4.0/5.0 have freed employees from heavy manual labour, improved their working environment and reduced the intensity of their work. However, on the other hand, the following challenges such as new work patterns, higher technical requirements and fears induced by unemployment will bring on mental stress for employees. In some cases, these challenges could even endanger their mental health. Hence it is hardly surprising that many employees suffer from work-related mental health conditions. Poor employee mental health can directly lead to negative working statuses such as fatigue, distraction, discomfort and extreme emotions at work, which in turn, could significantly affect their work performance.
Most existing studies on employee mental health and work performance have relied on self-report questionnaires which could cause inevitable subjective bias and memory bias. As a result, this method could impact the reliability of results and conclusions. Recently, emerging technologies such as electroencephalogram (EEG), eye tracking, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), artificial intelligence (AI), big data, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) have demonstrated their potential for addressing the afore-mentioned limitations and are providing deep insights of relationship between employee mental health and work performance for researchers and managers. Consequently, these emerging technologies have attracted considerable attention and efforts worldwide. Despite increasing expectations from these technologies, their application in employee mental health and work performance research remains in infancy. The viability of these emerging technologies has not been fully demonstrated or validated in practice.
To address the research gap, this Research Topic strives to rethink and validate the feasibility and benefits of adopting emerging technologies for investigating and improving employee mental health and work performance. Researchers are encouraged to propose the techniques, directions, strategies, and solutions to improve employee mental health and work performance with emerging technologies under Industry 4.0/5.0.
Authors are invited to present original research or review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts in deploying Industry 4.0/5.0 for employee mental health and work performance improvement. Interdisciplinary and comparative studies are welcomed.
Sub-topics include but are not limited to:
• Solutions to new employee mental health challenges amid the era of Industry 4.0/5.0 featuring emerging technologies;
• The impacts of employee mental health on work performance;
• Real-time employee mental health and work performance assessment systems with wearable sensors and other emerging technologies;
• Empirical studies for validating the feasibility and benefits of adopting emerging technologies for improving employee mental health and work performance;
• Public willingness to use related emerging technologies in workplace
• Trends and strategies in promoting emerging technologies in improving employee mental health and work performance;
• Social-technical issues (e.g., Human-technology interaction) in adopting emerging technologies for improving mental health and work performance.
