Collaborative assessment of automation technologies from the work perspective

Abstract

Work is a central aspect of human life because it is a means to obtain financial resources and social relevance. Technologies have always been created to help human labor with specific tasks or even make them unnecessary. In the long run, technologies positively impacted work and, in general, brought benefits to society. However, the first generations of workers that face the adoption of new technologies had their jobs negatively impacted. Computing systems can be used not only to automate work but also to help in the process of responsibly adopting automation. This thesis proposes the development of a model that allows the collaborative assessment of the impact of automation technologies on work. Two models are developed using the Soft Design Science Research methodology. The first one uses crowd computing to survey the impact of automation technologies on occupations. The second one uses groupware to collaboratively assess the impact of a given technology on an occupation in a company. The results of the thesis show different opportunities for the application of Computersupported Cooperative Work in support of the collaborative Technology Assessment of automation from the perspective of work.