Dance with robot: how employee functional experience diversity influences work wellbeing on human–robot collaboration

Introduction: The integration of service robots into the workplace is reshaping human collaboration, while also posing a threat to employee wellbeing by introducing job uncertainty and substitution anxiety. This study examines how employees' functional experience diversity influences their work wellbeing in the context of human-robot collaboration. Methods: Grounded in Conservation of Resources Theory and Individual Adaptability Theory, we propose a moderated mediation model in which individual adaptability serves as the mediator and task type as the moderator. Two complementary studies in the hotel industry test this model. Study 1 is a survey of 175 frontline employees; Study 2 is a field experiment with 227 employees. Results: Study 1 reveals that functional experience diversity enhances work wellbeing through individual adaptability, with this indirect effect being stronger for non-routine tasks. Study 2 replicates these findings, confirming adaptability's mediating role and the amplifying effect of non-routine work. Discussion: The findings indicate that diverse functional experience constitutes a vital personal resource that fosters adaptability, which in turn promotes wellbeing, particularly in complex and uncertain work contexts. This study extends the construct of functional experience diversity from top management teams to frontline service employees, revealing the formation mechanism of employee wellbeing in the era of technological transformation. It suggests that organizations should value cross-functional experience in recruitment, cultivate employee adaptability through job rotation, and strategically match employee capabilities with task characteristics to safeguard employees' wellbeing in the wave of service automation.