Digitalization of work: Challenges for workplace learning

The digitalization of workplaces can introduce changes on various levels of work activities. Educational research follows this transformation in one of two ways: On the one hand, there is the optimistic perspective of expecting to improve the quality of work and work life; on the other hand, there is the expectation that conditions of work and work life will generally deteriorate. Irrespective of the concrete outcomes of digitalization, a general agreement exists that digitalization will induce changes at workplaces that affect individuals and the tasks they do. At the same time, however, scholars disagree as to whether employees experience these changes in terms of affordances that engage them into learning new processes or if they experience constraints that inhibit further engagement in learning. This chapter explores the particular developments covered under the topic of digitalization at and of work, explains particular challenges of the introduction of cyber-physical systems and analyzes consequences for workplace learning. It focuses on conceptual change as a theoretical framework for understanding the quality of learning processes that seem inevitable in order to cope with the new requirements and – more importantly – to use the potentials of the new technologies. It then sketches the poor state of empirical research conducted in this area – so far limited to exploratory field studies – even in times of corona, which has boosted the digital transformation. The chapter ends with a description of the potential and problems of – at best interdisciplinary – research into learning at digitalized workplaces.