Digital Innovation and the Future of Work
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The concept of digitalization captures the widespread adoption of digital technologies in our lives, in the structure and functioning of organizations and in the transformation of our economy and society. Digital technologies for data processing and communication underly high-impact innovations including the Internet of Things, wireless multimedia, artificial intelligence, big data, enterprise platforms, social networks and blockchain. These digital innovations not only bring new opportunities for prosperity and wellbeing but also affect our behaviors, activities, and daily lives. They enable and shape new forms of production and new working practices in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and supply chains, energy, and public and business services. Digital innovations are not purely technological but form part of comprehensive systemic innovations of a sociotechnical and networked nature, requiring the alignment of technology, processes, organizations, and humans. Examples are platform-based work, customer driven value creating networks, and urban public service systems. Building on widespread networking, algorithmic decisions and sharing of personal data, these innovations raise intensive societal and ethical debates regarding key issues such as data sovereignty and privacy intrusion, business models based on data surveillance and negative externalization, quality of work and jobs, and market dominance versus regulation. In this context, this book focuses on the implications of digitalization for the domain of work. The book studies the changing nature of work as well as new forms of digitally enabled organizations, work practices and cooperation. The book sheds light on the technological, economic, and political forces shaping the new world of work and on the prospects for human-centric and responsible innovations. To this end, the book brings together a number of studies in five major topics: 1. The evolution of digital technology impacting ways of working; 2. The role of artificial intelligence in new ways of working; 3. Transformation of work, jobs and employment; 4. Digitalization and need for skills and competencies; and 5. New forms of decentralized working and cooperation.
Hans Schaffers is an independent researcher and advisor, focusing on human and societal implications of technological innovations. He received his PhD in Engineering Sciences at University of Twente, The Netherlands, specializing in computer-assisted decision-making in large-scale water systems. He worked as assistant professor in finance at Erasmus University Rotterdam; as senior researcher in technology and policy studies at TNO; as chief scientific consultant & international affairs manager at the Telematica Instituut; as a visiting professor and research director at the Centre for Knowledge and Innovation Research at Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki, Finland; as research professor in digital business innovation at Saxion University of Applied Sciences; and currently as coordinator for Science, Management and Innovation projects at Radboud University Nijmegen.
Matti A. Vartiainen is a senior advisor and professor emeritus of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto University School of Science. His research focuses on organizational innovations, digital work, new ways of working (remote work, mobile and multi-locational work, distributed teams and organizations), collaborative working platforms, knowledge building, future competencies and reward management systems.
Jacques Bus received his PhD in Science and Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. From 1988 he worked at the European Commission in leading positions in various parts of the Research programmes ESPRIT and ICT, including IT infrastructure, program management, software engineering, and since 2004 in trust and security, as well as the establishment of the Security Theme in the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. Since 2010 he works as an independent advisor in various projects and on Trust, Security, Privacy and Identity in the digital environment. Since 2011, he is cofounder and Secretary General of Digital Enlightenment Forum, a non-profit association in the field of Digitization and Society (https://digitalenlightenment.org/).