The Challenge of New Workplace Technology for Psychology

Becoming more competitive as a nation implies that we need to align our vast technological resources with enlightened human resource management to apply these technologies productively. In this article, the status of new workplace technologies is reviewed, and a "macroergonomic" approach is taken to discuss the impact of new technologies on the individual employee, on management methods, and on organizational structure and design. New workplace technologies pose many challenges for industrial and organizational psychologists, including how they may contribute to systematic research aimed toward productivity improvement. The review concludes that technological innovation will not be adopted and thus will not improve U.S. productivity unless a balance is achieved between technological development and human resource management needs.