The impact of technology development on long term personnel supply
Publish date: 2021-03-17
Report number: FOI-R--5089--SE
Pages: 49
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- Technology development
- labour market
- organization
- personnel supply
- competence
Abstract
As new technologies like Artificial Intelligences and robotics have demonstrated capabilities to perform tasks hitherto considered to be exclusively human, both media and research interest has grown with regard to the impact of technology development on our jobs. The present report's purpose is to increase the knowledge about how technology development may affect the supply of military personnel over time. The research questions are: 1) What does research state about the impact of technology development on the labour market, and on organizational demands for personnel?, and 2) How does this apply to a military context? The aim is to support the Swedish Armed Forces' forward-looking studies, and to identify challenges that may arise in the Swedish Armed Forces because of technology development. The report develops a framework to support analyses of the impact of technology development on different areas of the Swedish Armed Forces' operations. The framework departs from labour market trends, and from inertias that to varying degrees face organizations when adopting new technologies. The report assesses that the Swedish Armed Forces face certain challenges, primarily in the short term, concerning the interplay between technology and personnel supply. These challenges mainly relate to the ability to agilely cater for new and changing competence needs, in face of an, in certain regards, inflexible personnel supply structure with long lead times.