Abstract
Military organisations in the world lead and are led by industrial revolutions, the world is experiencing the emergence of one such industrial revolution which is brought about by technological disruptions. These disruptions affect how businesses are run, and how militaries will conduct their operations in the future. The South African Army and its personnel must adjust to these emergent technological disruptions at the workplace. This study sought to explore the current perspectives on the emergent industrial revolution and focused specifically on the perceptions of military personnel regarding the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies at their workplace. This was a quantitative study applying an adapted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with 8 hypotheses that represented the relationships in the TAM, of these 5 were accepted and 3 rejected. The sample size was 144 respondents representing four generation cohorts: Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers. The findings of the research suggest that military personnel are aware of the imminent impact of Industry 4.0 technologies at the workplace and their perception is that the resultant impact will not have direct bearing on their job security; military personnel further believe that robots will not conduct military operations in the future. The results also indicate that most military personnel use their own data and devices to connect to the internet at the workplace. Internet connectivity offers military personnel opportunities to keep abreast of technological developments; it could act as a source of information and, to a larger extent, contribute positively to personal and work efficiencies. The study also found that the South African Army is aware of Industry 4.0 technologies; the South African Defence Review 2015 advances for the establishment of the position of Chief Defence Scientist whose primary role will be the management of the defence technology development. In addition to this, Defence Enterprise Information System Management Division (DEISMD) publishes a number of bulletins on various topics including big data, wearable technology, cyber security, and Internet of things. DEISMD bulletins are published on the DoD intranet, which has limitation on access rights.
M.Com. (Business Management)