Service Robots in Restaurants: Anticipated Changes in Employee Feedback, Performance, Satisfaction, and Turnover Intention

Abstract

Service robots are increasingly integrated into workplaces such as restaurants, offering numerous benefits but also posing challenges. Employees often express skepticism and apprehension about the potential changes in their work resulting from the presence of robots. Consequently, both industry practitioners and researchers have emphasized the importance of investigating how employees might perceive and react to working alongside robots. This paper addresses this concern by presenting findings from a qualitative study employing thematic content analysis based on the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) with 220 restaurant employees. The results reinforce the associations posited by JCM, but also find an inverse relationship between feedback and knowledge of results and knowledge of results and satisfaction. They also provide insights about a direct association between knowledge of results and turnover intention.