Envisioning the future of work and the workforce with explainable artificial intelligence (XAI)
Open Access
- Author:
- Chang, Yu Ling
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 21, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Dongwon Lee, Outside Unit Member
Hyung Joon Yoon, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Heather Toomey Zimmerman, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
William Rothwell, Major Field Member
Deirdre O'Sullivan, Minor & Outside Field Member - Keywords:
- future of work
explainable artificial intelligence
interpretable machine learning
future of work
explainable artificial intelligence
interpretable machine learning - Abstract:
- Despite a wealth of research on how the future of work and the workforce will evolve in the years to come, little succeeds in grasping a holistic picture of the topic, let alone responding adequately to the changes coming ahead. The primary flaw in prior research is the excessive focus on job displacement, which assumed that the future of work is defined by the “leftovers” from AI, automation, and outsourcing. This perspective merely addresses what future work will not be like and leaves the question of what it will look like unresolved. To bridge this gap, the present study aims to envision the future of work and the workforce with a novel methodology, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). By leveraging XAI, the study explains both the declines and growth in the future of work and the workforce to develop a holistic vision of the future. The outcomes of XAI identified 10 fastest-growing and 6 fastest-declining work archetypes, as well as 8 fastest-growing and 4 fastest-declining worker archetypes and explained them with unique compositions of work activities, knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, values, and work styles. The results offer implications and recommendations for individuals, organizations, human resource professionals, education providers, and policymakers to proactively prepare for the future of work and the evolving workforce. It also contributes to the field of human resource development (HRD) and organization development (OD) in developing the future-ready workforce and fostering organizations’ sustainable growth.