Despite minimal evidence of technological redundancies since the famous paper on the topic by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne in 2013, fears have barely abated in the intervening years.  New research from Curtin University highlights the benefits technology can bring to the workplace, and downplays the risks of technology resulting in mass redundancies.

The research explores how technologies affect the way managers design work in both a positive and negative way, with this in turn impacting on the work load, performance levels, job satisfaction and overall wellbeing of employees.  The study suggests that the key is to better understand how tasks can be effectively distributed between humans and technology and not focus on how technology can replace humans.

“New technologies have the potential to bring new and exciting opportunities to the future workforce, but action is needed to ensure there are benefits for people rather than costs,” the researchers say.  “The most publicised risk of these technologies is the removal of jobs and workers due to automation, but this is not the only risk. Technology can also disempower workers and be used to intrusively monitor their every action.”

Augmenting work

Because of this, the researchers believe it’s important to focus on the ways in which man and machine can work together, even if that means adapting work to ensure this happens.

The researchers are confident that if automation is to occur, it will be of individual tasks rather than entire jobs.  This means it’s vital that work is redesigned to ensure that humans and technology can work effectively together.

“When careful attention is given to work design issues, we found that the introduction of technology into the workforce can enhance people’s work lives, by improving the level of control and autonomy in their jobs, the use of their skills, the quality of feedback people received, and levels of work load,” they conclude.  “There can also be performance and safety benefits when a human-centred approach is considered when designing and implementing new technologies. Organisations need to go beyond their predominant focus on replacing human work with digital systems and managers need to think more about how technology and people work together effectively through the design of quality work.”