The blessing and curse of "no strings attached": An automated literature analysis of psychological health and non-attachmental work in the digitalization era

• Published in: PloS one 2024-02, Vol.19 (2), p.e0298040-e0298040
• Main Authors: Rashid, Lubna, Möckel, Clemens, Bohn, Stephan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attachment behavior; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Employees; Employers; Health aspects; Labor relations; Machine learning; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental health; Psychological aspects; Psychological research; Research and Analysis Methods; Social Sciences; Technology and civilization
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298040

Amidst tremendous changes in the worlds of work in light of digitalization, non-attachmental work designs, where individuals gain income without being bound by a fixed administrative attachment to an employer, hold promises of self-actualization along with threats of insecurity. Today's technology boom and the consequent flexibility and uncertainty it brings into workers' lives may translate into inspiring growth opportunities or overloading pressure, contingent upon mental health and wellbeing impacts. This paper first provides a conceptualization of the non-attachmental work designs of the 21st century, before proceeding to an extensive mapping of literature at their intersection with psychological health. This involves a machine-learning-driven review of 1094 scientific articles using topic modeling, combined with in-depth manual content analyses and inductive-deductive cycles of pattern discovery and category building. The resulting scholarly blueprint reveals several tendencies, including a prevalence of positive psychology concepts in research on work designs with high levels of autonomy and control, contrasted with narratives of disempowerment in service- and task-based work. We note that some psychological health issues are researched with respect to specific work designs but not others, for instance neurodiversity and the role of gender in ownership-based work, self-image and digital addiction in content-based work, and ratings-induced anxiety in platform-mediated task-based work. We also find a heavy representation of 'heroic' entrepreneurs, quantitative methods, and western contexts in addition to a surprising dearth of analyses on the roles of policy and technological interventions. The results are positioned to guide academics, decision-makers, technologists, and workers in the pursuit of healthier work designs for a more sustainable future.