"Technology continues to weave its way into every nook and cranny of our lives, and the workplace is no different. Stories abound of organizations using information and communication technologies to make work more efficient. One potential consequence of this trend is the dehumanization of employees. As my colleague Alan Saks and I discuss in our recent paper, as technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms continue to proliferate, employees risk being objectified and viewed as cogs in an increasingly impersonal machine."
"Fortunately, leaders are not at the mercy of these dehumanizing developments. Leaders have the ability to counteract this trend by intentionally building care into the culture of their organizations. Care is an effective antidote to the depersonalizing effects of technology because care is personal and individualized. Whereas technology can create conditions that objectify employees, a culture of care rejects treating people as objects and thus serves as a corrective to technology's potentially dehumanizing effects."
Technology increasingly permeates workplaces through AI, robotics, algorithms, and surveillance, creating efficiency but risking the dehumanization and objectification of employees. Examples include being fired over email, continuous monitoring via wrist computers or implantable RFID chips, and algorithmic control that directs, evaluates, and disciplines workers. Data digitization can shift emphasis from human labor to metrics, causing workers to be defined by data and seen as interchangeable. Leaders can counteract these trends by intentionally embedding care into organizational culture. Care operates through personal, individualized practices that reject treating people as objects and correct technology's depersonalizing influences.
Read at Psychology Today
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