The threat of robots to career sustainability, and the pivotal role of knowledge management and human capital

Abstract

With the remarkable progress made in the field of artificial intelligence, there is growing concern about the possibility of robots posing a threat or danger to humans and the robot is crowding more and more people out of their jobs. The epidemic period also witnessed an unparalleled increase in the demand for technology products. This empirical study investigates several aspects of Knowledge Management (KM), Human Capital (HC) and Career Sustainability (CS): first, the relationship between KM dimensions, namely Technical, Cultural, Human and Structural Knowledge Management (TKM, CKM, HKM, SKM) on HC and CS in Malaysian public universities; and, secondly, the moderating role of HC on the relationship between these KM dimensions and CS. A research model was developed to test these hypothesized relationships. The model was tested on data from 251 lecturers, employing structural equation modelling PLS-SEM. The results show that TKM, CKM and HKM, but not SKM, have a significant impact on CS. HC moderates the relationship between TKM, SKM and HKM and CS but not CKM. The results provide useful insights for researchers and academics, outlining the practical and theoretical implications and future research.