Silviana Tana, Christoph F. Breidbach, Andrew Burton-Jones
Digital technologies are reshaping both organizations and our lives as members of society. The resulting changes are often referred to as “digital transformation” (DT)—a concept that has proven difficult to define and explain theoretically. This is especially true because the nature and scope of DT is evolving beyond clearly defined organizational boundaries. Today, information technology (IT) is becoming increasingly accessible and relevant for many more members of society, creating the potential for previously unseen transformations beyond organizations. Accordingly, new theoretical lenses are needed to explain how a broader set of social actors instigate and are affected by transformative change induced by IT. We conceptualize DT as collective social action, a novel lens that aims to expand the focus of DT research beyond organizations as its unit of analysis, with a complementary perspective centered on social actors, their actions, and their impact. We delineate a typology of digital transformation as collective social action that considers the locus of transformation (what?), types of social actor(s) (who?), and the underlying mechanisms (how?). Collectively, the four ideal types constitute a new theory to help apprehend, explain, and predict how DT as collective social action occurs within and outside formally defined organizational boundaries.
{"title":"Digital Transformation as Collective Social Action","authors":"Silviana Tana, Christoph F. Breidbach, Andrew Burton-Jones","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00791","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00791","url":null,"abstract":"Digital technologies are reshaping both organizations and our lives as members of society. The resulting changes are often referred to as “digital transformation” (DT)—a concept that has proven difficult to define and explain theoretically. This is especially true because the nature and scope of DT is evolving beyond clearly defined organizational boundaries. Today, information technology (IT) is becoming increasingly accessible and relevant for many more members of society, creating the potential for previously unseen transformations beyond organizations. Accordingly, new theoretical lenses are needed to explain how a broader set of social actors instigate and are affected by transformative change induced by IT. We conceptualize DT as collective social action, a novel lens that aims to expand the focus of DT research beyond organizations as its unit of analysis, with a complementary perspective centered on social actors, their actions, and their impact. We delineate a typology of digital transformation as collective social action that considers the locus of transformation (what?), types of social actor(s) (who?), and the underlying mechanisms (how?). Collectively, the four ideal types constitute a new theory to help apprehend, explain, and predict how DT as collective social action occurs within and outside formally defined organizational boundaries.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"294 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135448630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anuschka Schmitt, Naim Zierau, Andreas Janson, J. Leimeister
The pervasiveness and increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI)-based artifacts within private, organizational, and social realms are changing how humans interact with machines. Theorizing about the way that humans perceive AI-based artifacts is, for example, crucial to understanding why and to what extent humans deem these artifacts to be competent for decision-making but has traditionally taken a modality-agnostic view. In this paper, we theorize about a particular case of interaction, namely that of voice-based interaction with AI-based artifacts. We argue that the capabilities and perceived naturalness of such artifacts, fueled by continuous advances in natural language processing, induce users to deem an artifact as able to act autonomously in a goal-oriented manner. We show that there is a positive direct relationship between the voice capabilities of an artifact and users’ agency attribution, ultimately obscuring the artifact’s true nature and competencies. This relationship is further moderated by the artifact’s actual agency, uncertainty, and user characteristics.
{"title":"The Role of AI-Based Artifacts' Voice Capabilities for Agency Attribution","authors":"Anuschka Schmitt, Naim Zierau, Andreas Janson, J. Leimeister","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00827","url":null,"abstract":"The pervasiveness and increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI)-based artifacts within private, organizational, and social realms are changing how humans interact with machines. Theorizing about the way that humans perceive AI-based artifacts is, for example, crucial to understanding why and to what extent humans deem these artifacts to be competent for decision-making but has traditionally taken a modality-agnostic view. In this paper, we theorize about a particular case of interaction, namely that of voice-based interaction with AI-based artifacts. We argue that the capabilities and perceived naturalness of such artifacts, fueled by continuous advances in natural language processing, induce users to deem an artifact as able to act autonomously in a goal-oriented manner. We show that there is a positive direct relationship between the voice capabilities of an artifact and users’ agency attribution, ultimately obscuring the artifact’s true nature and competencies. This relationship is further moderated by the artifact’s actual agency, uncertainty, and user characteristics.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"1 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91087811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rapid developments in real-time collaborative technologies, coupled with the quest for innovation and creativity, have made global virtual teams (GVTs) a viable workplace collaboration option that many companies are turning to. Although diverse team member perspectives in GVTs are expected to foster creativity, cultural diversity within GVTs also poses significant challenges related to knowledge exchange and integration among team members. Grounding our work in the team adaptation and cultural intelligence (CQ) literatures, we suggest CQ as a plausible modality for cultural adaptation in GVTs. Specifically, we propose a nomological network comprising CQ dimensions (motivation, cognition, metacognition, and behavior) serving as a cultural adaptation mechanism for fostering creativity in GVT outcomes. We contextualize and extend CQ theory, which has previously focused on face-to-face contexts, to the virtual collaborative GVT environment. For this, we conceptualize the significant role of deep-level implicitly negotiated adaptative behavior (role structure adaptation) in GVTs—in addition to surface-level explicitly displayed adaptative behavior (CQ behavior). We tested the proposed model through a sequential mixed methods approach that integrated the results from a quantitative two-wave survey study with findings from a qualitative study comprising expert interviews, to arrive at rich and robust inferences and metainferences. The proposed CQ-for-GVT framework, along with delineated boundary conditions and associated propositions, explicates an integrative model explaining the role of CQ for GVT creativity performance. The delineated model not only has theoretical implications but also provides useful directions for GVT practitioners.
{"title":"Contextualizing Team Adaptation for Fostering Creative Outcomes in Multicultural Virtual Teams: A Mixed Methods Approach","authors":"Anuragini Shirish, S. Srivastava, I. Boughzala","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00811","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00811","url":null,"abstract":"Rapid developments in real-time collaborative technologies, coupled with the quest for innovation and creativity, have made global virtual teams (GVTs) a viable workplace collaboration option that many companies are turning to. Although diverse team member perspectives in GVTs are expected to foster creativity, cultural diversity within GVTs also poses significant challenges related to knowledge exchange and integration among team members. Grounding our work in the team adaptation and cultural intelligence (CQ) literatures, we suggest CQ as a plausible modality for cultural adaptation in GVTs. Specifically, we propose a nomological network comprising CQ dimensions (motivation, cognition, metacognition, and behavior) serving as a cultural adaptation mechanism for fostering creativity in GVT outcomes. We contextualize and extend CQ theory, which has previously focused on face-to-face contexts, to the virtual collaborative GVT environment. For this, we conceptualize the significant role of deep-level implicitly negotiated adaptative behavior (role structure adaptation) in GVTs—in addition to surface-level explicitly displayed adaptative behavior (CQ behavior). We tested the proposed model through a sequential mixed methods approach that integrated the results from a quantitative two-wave survey study with findings from a qualitative study comprising expert interviews, to arrive at rich and robust inferences and metainferences. The proposed CQ-for-GVT framework, along with delineated boundary conditions and associated propositions, explicates an integrative model explaining the role of CQ for GVT creativity performance. The delineated model not only has theoretical implications but also provides useful directions for GVT practitioners.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"14 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82042677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
False claims and misinformation on social media have substantially increased in the last few years. Some people have incorrectly interpreted such content as the truth, sometimes to the extent that it transforms their view of reality and subsequently leads to actions that cause harm and suffering. Despite the burgeoning body of research on misinformation on social media, we know little about the process by which social media-driven misinformation shapes and reinforces false beliefs that result in detrimental outcomes. Building on insights from dramaturgical tragedy, theories of truth, and research on social media, we develop a process theory that explains how social media-driven misinformation transforms a person’s view of reality in a way that leads to detrimental human action.
{"title":"Tragedy, Truth, and Technology: The 3T Theory of Social Media-Driven Misinformation","authors":"Nicholas Roberts, Hamed Qahri-Saremi","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00831","url":null,"abstract":"False claims and misinformation on social media have substantially increased in the last few years. Some people have incorrectly interpreted such content as the truth, sometimes to the extent that it transforms their view of reality and subsequently leads to actions that cause harm and suffering. Despite the burgeoning body of research on misinformation on social media, we know little about the process by which social media-driven misinformation shapes and reinforces false beliefs that result in detrimental outcomes. Building on insights from dramaturgical tragedy, theories of truth, and research on social media, we develop a process theory that explains how social media-driven misinformation transforms a person’s view of reality in a way that leads to detrimental human action.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"25 1","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88390488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jaime B. Windeler, Cathy Urquhart, Jason Bennett Thatcher, Michelle Carter, Arlene Bailey
{"title":"Special Issue Introduction: JAIS Special Issue on Technology and Social Inclusion","authors":"Jaime B. Windeler, Cathy Urquhart, Jason Bennett Thatcher, Michelle Carter, Arlene Bailey","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00841","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"226 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135311032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Advances in reinforcement learning and implicit data collection on large-scale commercial platforms mark the beginning of a new era of personalization aimed at the adaptive control of human user environments. We present five emergent features of this new paradigm of personalization that endanger persons and societies at scale and analyze their potential to reduce personal autonomy, destabilize social and political systems, and facilitate mass surveillance and social control, among other concerns. We argue that current data protection laws, most notably the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, are limited in their ability to adequately address many of these issues. Nevertheless, we believe that IS researchers are well-situated to engage with and investigate this new era of personalization. We propose three distinct directions for ethically aware reinforcement learning-based personalization research uniquely suited to the strengths of IS researchers across the sociotechnical spectrum.
{"title":"Taking the Person Seriously: Ethically Aware IS Research in the Era of Reinforcement Learning-Based Personalization","authors":"Travis Greene, Galit Shmueli, Soumya Ray","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00800","url":null,"abstract":"Advances in reinforcement learning and implicit data collection on large-scale commercial platforms mark the beginning of a new era of personalization aimed at the adaptive control of human user environments. We present five emergent features of this new paradigm of personalization that endanger persons and societies at scale and analyze their potential to reduce personal autonomy, destabilize social and political systems, and facilitate mass surveillance and social control, among other concerns. We argue that current data protection laws, most notably the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, are limited in their ability to adequately address many of these issues. Nevertheless, we believe that IS researchers are well-situated to engage with and investigate this new era of personalization. We propose three distinct directions for ethically aware reinforcement learning-based personalization research uniquely suited to the strengths of IS researchers across the sociotechnical spectrum.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135448631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Raghava Mukkamala, Robert J. Kauffman, Helle Zinner Henriksen
The UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) is pursuing a social media strategy to inform people about displaced populations and refugee emergencies. It is actively engaging public figures to increase awareness through its prosocial communications and improve social informedness and support for policy changes in its services. We studied the Twitter communications of UNHCR social media champions and investigated their role as high-profile influencers. In this study, we offer a design science research and data analytics framework and propositions based on the social informedness theory we propose in this paper to assess communication about UNHCR’s mission. Two variables—refugee-emergency and champion type—relate to the informedness of UNHCR champions’ followers. Based on a Twitter sentiment and attitude corpus, we applied a five-step design science analytics framework involving machine learning and natural language processing to test how the emergency type and champion type impact social communication patterns. Positive and neutral sentiment dominated the tweets of the champions and their followers for most refugee-emergency types. High participation-intensity champions emphasized high-intensity emergencies with tweet patterns reflecting dominant positive or neutral sentiment and sharing/liking attitudes. However, we found that sports figures effects were limited in spreading UNHCR’s message, despite their millions of followers. We demonstrate the power of data science for prosocial policy based on refugee crisis awareness and instantiate our methods and knowledge contributions in a research framework that derives knowledge, decisions, and actions from behavioral, design, and economics of information systems perspectives.
{"title":"Champions for Social Good: How Can We Discover Social Sentiment and Attitude-Driven Patterns in Prosocial Communication?","authors":"Raghava Mukkamala, Robert J. Kauffman, Helle Zinner Henriksen","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00810","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00810","url":null,"abstract":"The UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) is pursuing a social media strategy to inform people about displaced populations and refugee emergencies. It is actively engaging public figures to increase awareness through its prosocial communications and improve social informedness and support for policy changes in its services. We studied the Twitter communications of UNHCR social media champions and investigated their role as high-profile influencers. In this study, we offer a design science research and data analytics framework and propositions based on the social informedness theory we propose in this paper to assess communication about UNHCR’s mission. Two variables—refugee-emergency and champion type—relate to the informedness of UNHCR champions’ followers. Based on a Twitter sentiment and attitude corpus, we applied a five-step design science analytics framework involving machine learning and natural language processing to test how the emergency type and champion type impact social communication patterns. Positive and neutral sentiment dominated the tweets of the champions and their followers for most refugee-emergency types. High participation-intensity champions emphasized high-intensity emergencies with tweet patterns reflecting dominant positive or neutral sentiment and sharing/liking attitudes. However, we found that sports figures effects were limited in spreading UNHCR’s message, despite their millions of followers. We demonstrate the power of data science for prosocial policy based on refugee crisis awareness and instantiate our methods and knowledge contributions in a research framework that derives knowledge, decisions, and actions from behavioral, design, and economics of information systems perspectives.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135448383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this editorial, we develop the concept of digital sustainability for the IS community. By systematically reviewing the Green IT and Green IS literatures, we show that the IS field has lagged behind current discourse in practice and therefore lacks the conceptualization of the relationships between digital technologies and sustainability. Digital sustainability is defined in this editorial as the development and deployment of digital resources and artifacts toward improving the environment, society, and economic welfare. We hope that this editorial motivates IS researchers to engage in digital sustainability as an emerging research area.
{"title":"Digital Sustainability in Information Systems Research: Conceptual Foundations and Future Directions","authors":"Julia Kotlarsky, I. Oshri, Nevena Sekulic","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00825","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00825","url":null,"abstract":"In this editorial, we develop the concept of digital sustainability for the IS community. By systematically reviewing the Green IT and Green IS literatures, we show that the IS field has lagged behind current discourse in practice and therefore lacks the conceptualization of the relationships between digital technologies and sustainability. Digital sustainability is defined in this editorial as the development and deployment of digital resources and artifacts toward improving the environment, society, and economic welfare. We hope that this editorial motivates IS researchers to engage in digital sustainability as an emerging research area.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"1 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84273020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Connolly, Otávio P. Sanchez, Deborah R. Compeau, F. Tacco
Online health communities (OHCs) represent a popular and valuable resource for those seeking health information, support, or advice. They have the potential to reduce dependency on traditional health information channels, increase health literacy and empower a broader range of individuals in relation to their health management decisions. Successful communities are characterized by high levels of trust in user-generated contributions, which is reflected in increased engagement and expressed through knowledge adoption and knowledge contribution. However, research shows that the majority of OHCs are composed of passive participants who do not contribute via posts, thereby threatening the sustainability of many communities and their potential for empowerment. Despite this fact, the relationship between trust and engagement, specifically the trust antecedents that influence engagement in the OHC community context has not been adequately explained in past research. In this study, we leverage social capital behavior and social exchange theory frameworks in order to provide a more granular trust-based elucidation of the factors that influence individuals’ engagement in OHCs. We collected data from 410 Brazilian participants of Facebook OHCs and tested the research model using partial least squares. The results confirm two new constructs—online community responsiveness and community support—as trust antecedents that influence engagement in OHCs, resulting in knowledge adoption and knowledge contribution responses. These findings contribute to the trust and engagement literatures and to social media research knowledge. From a practitioner perspective, the study findings can serve as an important guide for moderators and managers seeking to develop trusted and impactful OHCs.
{"title":"Understanding Engagement in Online Health Communities: A Trust-Based Perspective","authors":"R. Connolly, Otávio P. Sanchez, Deborah R. Compeau, F. Tacco","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00785","url":null,"abstract":"Online health communities (OHCs) represent a popular and valuable resource for those seeking health information, support, or advice. They have the potential to reduce dependency on traditional health information channels, increase health literacy and empower a broader range of individuals in relation to their health management decisions. Successful communities are characterized by high levels of trust in user-generated contributions, which is reflected in increased engagement and expressed through knowledge adoption and knowledge contribution. However, research shows that the majority of OHCs are composed of passive participants who do not contribute via posts, thereby threatening the sustainability of many communities and their potential for empowerment. Despite this fact, the relationship between trust and engagement, specifically the trust antecedents that influence engagement in the OHC community context has not been adequately explained in past research. In this study, we leverage social capital behavior and social exchange theory frameworks in order to provide a more granular trust-based elucidation of the factors that influence individuals’ engagement in OHCs. We collected data from 410 Brazilian participants of Facebook OHCs and tested the research model using partial least squares. The results confirm two new constructs—online community responsiveness and community support—as trust antecedents that influence engagement in OHCs, resulting in knowledge adoption and knowledge contribution responses. These findings contribute to the trust and engagement literatures and to social media research knowledge. From a practitioner perspective, the study findings can serve as an important guide for moderators and managers seeking to develop trusted and impactful OHCs.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"35 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88158249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tapani Rinta-Kahila, Esko Penttinen, Antti Salovaara, Wael Soliman, Joona Ruissalo
Cognitive automation powered by advanced intelligent technologies is increasingly enabling organizations to automate more of their knowledge work tasks. Although this often offers higher efficiency and lower costs, cognitive automation exacerbates the erosion of human skill and expertise in automated tasks. Accepting the erosion of obsolete skills is necessary to reap the benefits of technology—however, the erosion of essential human expertise is problematic if workers remain accountable for tasks for which they lack sufficient understanding, rendering them incapable of responding if the automation fails. Though the phenomenon is widely acknowledged, the dynamics behind such undesired skill erosion are poorly understood. Thus, taking the perspective of sociotechnical systems, we conducted a case study of an accounting firm that had experienced skill erosion over a number of years due to reliance on their software’s automated functions. We synthesized our findings using causal loop modeling based on system dynamics. The resulting dynamic model explains skill erosion via an interplay between humans’ automation reliance, complacency, and mindful conduction. It shows how increasing reliance on automation fosters complacency at both individual and organizational levels, weakening workers’ mindfulness across three work task facets (activity awareness, competence maintenance, and output assessment), resulting in skill erosion. Such skill erosion may remain obscure, acknowledged by neither workers nor managers. We conclude by discussing the implications for theory and practice and identifying directions for future research.
{"title":"The Vicious Circles of Skill Erosion: A Case Study of Cognitive Automation","authors":"Tapani Rinta-Kahila, Esko Penttinen, Antti Salovaara, Wael Soliman, Joona Ruissalo","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00829","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00829","url":null,"abstract":"Cognitive automation powered by advanced intelligent technologies is increasingly enabling organizations to automate more of their knowledge work tasks. Although this often offers higher efficiency and lower costs, cognitive automation exacerbates the erosion of human skill and expertise in automated tasks. Accepting the erosion of obsolete skills is necessary to reap the benefits of technology—however, the erosion of essential human expertise is problematic if workers remain accountable for tasks for which they lack sufficient understanding, rendering them incapable of responding if the automation fails. Though the phenomenon is widely acknowledged, the dynamics behind such undesired skill erosion are poorly understood. Thus, taking the perspective of sociotechnical systems, we conducted a case study of an accounting firm that had experienced skill erosion over a number of years due to reliance on their software’s automated functions. We synthesized our findings using causal loop modeling based on system dynamics. The resulting dynamic model explains skill erosion via an interplay between humans’ automation reliance, complacency, and mindful conduction. It shows how increasing reliance on automation fosters complacency at both individual and organizational levels, weakening workers’ mindfulness across three work task facets (activity awareness, competence maintenance, and output assessment), resulting in skill erosion. Such skill erosion may remain obscure, acknowledged by neither workers nor managers. We conclude by discussing the implications for theory and practice and identifying directions for future research.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"143 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80262130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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