Abstract
Society 5.0, human-centered social understanding, is defined as the period in which the technological opportunities offered by Industry 4.0 will serve the welfare of people. However, Society 5.0 faces many factors in terms of resistance to social change. Both the commitment of individuals and organizations to the current social life practice and uncertainty slows down the path to Society 5.0. With the COVID-19 pandemic-related digital solutions and applications on a world scale, life practices have radically changed. At this point, the process towards Society 5.0 has accelerated and the first stage of Kurt Lewin's three-steps change model has started, “unfreeze.” Decision makers and managers need to initiate change, particularly in education and other fields, and contribute to social transformation by “refreezing” new practices and methods that will serve human well-being and Society 5.0. In this context, this process was discussed, and recommendations were made in the scope of the study.
TopIntroduction
Today, above all, technological advances, for instance, the remarkable increase in computing power, are contributing to improvements in both business and society (Shiroishi et al., 2018). Digital transformation is generating new values and becoming a mainstay of industrial policy in many countries (Fukuyama, 2018). Simultaneously, the world is witnessing worldwide challenges, just like the lessening of natural resources, global warming, and rising economic inequality in general, an epidemic crisis –Covid-19- in particular. No doubt, we try to survive in a chaotic era of uncertainty, insecurity with complexity rising at all levels. Hence it is vital that human beings, now, have to leverage digital technologies to effectively and efficiently provide solutions for society to create better living standards and sustainable healthy economic growth. It is first the Japanese who look beyond Industry 4.0, at the same time as considering other countries' policies, such as Germany's Industry 4.0 and the United States' Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (Shiroishi et al., 2018; Fukuda, 2020).
Industry 4.0 consists of the incorporation of data flow amongst the partners, suppliers, and customers, in addition to the integration of the real world with the virtual world which leads to an updated information platform in real-time (Abreu, 2018). The technological and digital components, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), or Industrial Internet, are emphasized in Industry 4.0. At the same time, the human-centered focus is quite ignored (Ferreira and Serpa, 2018). Probably the only premise given concerning human resources is potential changes within the labor market as a result of automation, robotics, and AI. Above all, the world of work in Industry 4.0 is yet inconceivable without human beings. But what is the benefit of people and society from Industry 4.0? (Skobelev and Borovik, 2017) The technological uprising within Industry 4.0 can achieve its full potential just with the association of social innovation (Morrar et al., 2017). It is the Government of Japan's Society 5.0 proposal that tries to make use of digital technologies to create a “super smart” cyber-physical society that is more “human-oriented” (Harayama 2017; Fukuyama, 2018; Gladden, 2019) The main purpose of Society 5.0 is to create a technology integrated society in which all human beings can appreciate life minus all potential limitations. Even though Society 5.0 is initiated in Japan, its motivation isn't solely directed at the succeeding in one nation (Onday, 2019). The worldwide social trend now is the generation of Society 5.0., as it is compulsory to establish a better society, well-fare of everyone (Bryndin, 2018).
As mentioned above, Society 5.0 represents a paradigm shift from a traditional technology-driven approach to a more human-oriented one. It highlights a fundamental change regarding the role of technology: Technological development should be for the good of society (Carraz and Harayama, 2018; Bryndin, 2018). Just like any other change, no one doubts that this fundamental paradigm change will meet with powerful resistance. However, the world is now witnessing a huge crisis: Covid-19 pandemic. The world's greatest governments seem to be helpless. Giant companies are experiencing economic challenges. People are suffering from Covid 19; they are even dying. The rest is isolating themselves at home. But even at home, life is going on. Home office working becomes very common, even in very traditional companies. Best universities transformed their education style to distant learning. First level medical services are started being offered online. This pandemic crisis, which reminds the unfreeze, change and refreeze model of Kurt Lewin (1947), seems to break the resistance towards the use of digital technologies in many ways in business and social life for the benefit of the society (e.g., Society 5.0).
The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of pandemic crises on society 5.0 from Kurt Lewin's model of change. This paper is structured in three sections. The first section examines the Society 5.0 and the paradigm change underlying it. The second section presents Kurt Lewin's (1947) model of change and discusses the catalyst role of the covid-19 pandemic. The following third section shows the steps of how the worldwide pandemic crisis breaks the traditional rules of the game based on an example of the Turkish education system. The chapter concludes by arguing that if that transformation process towards Society 5.0 is sustainable in the long term or there will be a way back for organizations.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Innovation: Innovation means assessing the ability to alter and adapt of individuals or organizations.
Industry 4.0: Industry 4.0, which was first mentioned at the Hannover Fair in 2011, is an industrial era and concept that takes advantage of the opportunities offered by information sharing and virtual-real world integration between various parties.
Society 5.0: Society 5.0 refers to the social level that caring for well-being of the human and that the needs and expectations of all segments of society will be met with help of the technological opportunities offered by Industry 4.0.
Agile Leadership: It is a postmodern leadership style that provides organizational agility in firms where change and technology are very fast and leadership style in Industry 5.0.
Dynamic Capabilities: It is the ability of a firm or organization to learn new methods occurred to produce and serve and to meet the needs of customers according to environmental and technological changes.
Agility: It is the capability of organizations and institutional structures to develop procesess, and understandings quickly and at the proper time, taking into account the changing environmental dynamics
3 Step Change Model: It is a 3-step (freeze, change, unfreeze) model used by Kurt Lewin to explain the process of change.