Automating to control: The unexpected consequences of modern automated work delivery in practice

Abstract

This paper explores how automation efforts with the intent to control work in modern work places can unfold. Building on a longitudinal study of a governmental agency’s efforts to implement automated work delivery technology to enforce work guidelines, I show how aspects of work might become more automated but the rationale of automation might fail to manifest as originally intended. Technology and the formal structure inscribed into it to control work might conflict with the demands of work practice. Moreover, the findings show how automated control can be resisted by workers through subversive organizing in teams to reacquire work discretion. Through an analysis of automated control in practice, this paper contributes to discussions of technologies of control and how pragmatic resistance can emerge to counteract such technology.