Organizational Behavior Area Research Seminar Series: Jenna Myers
Jenna Myers
University of Toronto
Managing Failures of Automation through Adaptive Interdependence: The Value of Human Skill during Rapid Technological Change
Date: Friday March 14, 2025
Time: 10:30 AM -12:00 PM
Location: Armstrong building, room 155A
All are cordially invited to attend.
Abstract:
Existing literature highlights that organizations can manage technology failures through formal process improvement and local adaptations. However, these solutions are incomplete for organizations facing rapid technological change. In this article, I draw on an ethnographic study of ElectriCo, a microelectronics manufacturer for U.S. defense, focusing on assembly workers who frequently encountered failures across a shifting portfolio of automated technologies. My findings revealed that ElectriCo used an approach that I term adaptive interdependence, in which human workers were flexibly inserted into the work process to perform tasks manually when automated technologies failed. These findings expand our understanding of human-technology interdependence by showing that humans are sometimes needed to augment technological potential, reversing the typical view of augmentation. They also underscore the value of manual skills in managing automation failures, suggesting that organizations should invest in training and development to maintain these skills under some conditions. Paradoxically, in environments of rapid technological change, the question of what skills remain valuable following automation should be somewhat decoupled from the question of what tasks technologies can theoretically perform.
