Motivating Employees in Times of Industry 4.0: The Suitability of Classical Motivation Theories Within the Framework of Industry 4.0

The comprehensive networking and digitization associated with the fourth industrial revolution leads to changes along the entire value chain and requires a holistic change process within the company. This change process affects not only the company itself, but also addresses a wide range of stakeholders. As a particularly important stakeholder group, employees are faced with entirely new challenges. Lifelong learning and continuous professional development will be a prerequisite to survive in the labor market modified by Industry 4.0. Particularly with those employees, who see their job threatened by Industry 4.0, these fears lead to uncertainty and motivation losses. This leads to the question how employees can be motivated in the age of Industry 4.0 and whether classical motivation theories are still valid. In order to answer this question, different motivation theories are analyzed, and the main motivation criteria are worked out and summarized in an overview matrix. Subsequently, the applicability of the classical motivation theories and their measures in the Industry 4.0 process is examined in an empirical survey.