6.1
Technology and the Future of Work
What impact can new technologies have on organisations?
the organisation-technology relationship
Early research on socio-technical systems
The important technology from an organisational behavior perspective
The consumerization of IT. Many of us prefer to use our own tablets, laptops smartphones and apps when and where we choose, rather than to be restricted to clumsy corporate systems
Organizational implications. Technology influences business models, corporate strategy, competitive advantage, organization structures and processes,
No escape. Technology affects almost all aspects of life
A second industrial revolution. The second machine age
The scale and pace of innovation mean that technology is also a
main driver of organizational change
The relationship between technology and organisational behaviour: determinism or choice?
Technological determinism
sees technology as inevitably shaping the direction in which events move.
social shaping of technology (Organizational Choice)
social construction
rejects the technologically deterministic view, and highlights the importance of social and economic forces on the choices made and the way they influence the development of a particular technology.
The argument that technology explains the nature of jobs, skills and knowledge requirements and organization structure
The argument that work design and organization structure depend on decisions about how and why technology is used and not by the technology itself
The challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence
technology is changing work in two ways:
machines and robots are increasingly doing what was previously being done by humans
digital technology is changing the way in which we organise work.
Techno-optimists
see Table 3.1, ‘Twelve disruptive technologies and their potential impacts’, in Buchanan and Huczynski (2017, p.82).
For the techno-optimists, these changes generally constitute progress for humanity. As Alvin Weinberg (1966), who coined the term ‘technological fix’, claims, it is better to look for technological solutions to societal problems.
Techno-pessimists
The ideology of the ‘technological fix’ represents an optimistic perspective on the relationship between technology and human society.
Martin Ford, author of The rise of the robots: technology and the threat of a jobless future (2016), argues:
"Machines are encroaching on the fundamental capability that sets us apart as a species
our ability to make complex decisions, to solve problems – and, most importantly, to learn… In the coming decades, widespread unemployment has clear potential to tear society apart, in a world with far too few jobs, who will have the income and confidence to purchase the products and services produced by the
Reconciling the rise of technology and AI with wider social needs
Knights and Willmott (2017, p.454), define two key ideas of technological determinism:
Technology forces changes on society
Technological determinism focuses on its impact on human organization and action
They note that a major conundrum here is that technological determinist organisations is focusing on how to adapt to new technology
This view fails to take into account that technology is the result of economic, political and social choices. Or technology is shaped by society
According to Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis (2008, p.545): “Technology does not determine organizational behaviour; in fact it is the organizational relations of power and knowledge that are significant”.
Knights and Willmott (2017, p.464), define two key ideas of this ‘social shaping of technology’ approach:
Technology is entwined with society and its components
Technology is just one aspect of the way we live socially
This means that the key question for organisations is how best to identify the effects of social relations and institutions on particular technologies.
“despite successive waves of computerization (including advanced machine learning), jobs have not disappeared” (2019, p.23), and he further argues that they probably won’t in the near future.
Coining the term “bounded automation”
The gig economy is “a system of employment in which freelance workers sell their skills and services, through online marketplaces, to employers on a project or task basis” (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2017, p.281).
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The social shaping of technology in policy making