Tasks and Prospects of ‘Arbeit 4.0’ of Germany in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution

Abstract

In November 2016, the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs published the white paper ‘Arbeit 4.0’. It’s the result of an 18-month dialogue process mapping out the challenges for the world of labour and injecting policy proposals in the political debate. The dialogue involved a wide range of stakeholders such as academia, trade unions, employer organizations, and the general public. Work 4.0 reflects a growing consensus among German policy-makers that could change the entire labor market. This will have inevitable impacts on the welfare state and social security systems. Whereas workers in manufacturing have been experiencing digitization for the last decade or more, a lot of white-collar professionals, for example in health or legal advice, realize only now that their current job description might change fundamentally in the years to come. For a whole generation of young people – sometimes consciously, sometimes out of necessity – working life means project-based employment, remote work and increasingly blurry lines between work and leisure. ‘Arbeit 4.0’, the basis for all human resource policies in Germany has to do much with enlarging the competent areas of human relations in the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Excellent technology companies stress components of management, such as agile Organization, pioneering culture, great talent to cope with challenges from rapid progressing digital transformations. The belief that customers determine the success of business becomes common sense in the global business. Companies introduce ‘platforms’ to meet with customers and external opinion leaders in the process of manufacturing of new products. Challenges and change arise from digitalization. Excellent companies try to absorb ideas and stories from outside, because discussion between manufacturers and customers can promote initiatives of outsiders. Platforms can combine stories of customers with competence of employees. Breakthroughs in understanding the creative process often come from people who are involved in an active way of on daily basis. German government focuses on creating networks among government officials, reseachers, customers and employees of business companies. ‘Arbeit 4.0’ is the slogan to overcome challenges from so-called ‘The 4th Industrial Revolution’. Making a connection is the main topic of this kind of industrial revolution. A new business typically does not have the resources to pay for all the management and operational staff that may be necessary to keep it running. The solution lies in outsourcing, while means using independent contractors to undertake functions that the entrepreneur does not want to handle. Independent contractors own their own businesses and are hired by the entrepreneur to do a specific job. This kind of new emerging businesses is related to ‘platform’ business where a platform is fundamentally an infrastructure designed to facilitate interactions among producers and consumers of values. Crowd workers and cloud workers can be important actors in the platforms of ‘Industrie 4.0’. The implementation of ‘Arbeit 4.0’ policies in Germany can give us insights to Korean enterprises, as Korea has strong manufacturing bases like in German industrial firms. Socio-technical system will be a model for introducing and implementing AI and robotics at workplaces in Korea.