Exploring Service Robots as Resources for Occupational Well-Being at Hospitals in Denmark and South Korea

The rising demand for services and scarcity of hospital workers call for innovations to decrease workload and support occupational well-being. Recent technological advancements have enabled the implementation of autonomous mobile robots as service robots for use in service delivery. We studied perceptions of service robots through retrospective data and a technology acceptance-based survey of 64 hospital workers (Study 1) and how service robots co-constructed the occupational well-being with 16 experienced hospital workers through a survey and qualitative interviews (Study 2) at hospitals in Denmark and South Korea. Results indicated equivalence in use of service robots across the two hospitals, high work engagement, and experiences of predictability and flow, which enabled hospital workers to prioritize work tasks and focus throughout the day. We found that service robots are complex human-robot interaction technologies that carry demands and resources, including casting anthropomorphism and playful work design as important job resources in digitalized workplaces.