Current concept, development, and testing applications in production concerning Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Industry 4.0 (I40), and Internet of Things (IoT) are mainly addressing fully autonomous ...systems, fostered by an increase in available technologies regarding distributed decision-making, sensors, and actuators for robotics systems. This is applied also to production logistics settings with a multitude of transport tasks, e.g., between warehousing or material supply stations and production locations within larger production sites as for example in the automotive industry. In most cases, mixed environments where automated systems and humans collaborate (e.g., cobots) are not in the center of analysis and development endeavors although the worker’s adoption and acceptance of new technologies are of crucial relevance. From an interdisciplinary research perspective, this constitutes an important research gap, as the future challenges for successful automated systems will rely mainly on human-computer interaction (HCI) in connection with an efficient collaboration between motivated workers, automated robotics, and transportation systems. We develop a HCI efficiency description in production logistics based on an interdisciplinary analysis consisting of three interdependent parts: (i) a production logistics literature review and process study, (ii) a computer science literature review and simulation study for an existing autonomous traffic control algorithm applicable to production logistics settings with the specific inclusion of human actors, and (iii) a work science analysis for automation settings referring to theoretical foundations and empirical findings regarding the management of workers in digital work settings. We conclude with practical implications and discuss avenues for future research and business applications.
In contrast to other countries, the appearance of locum physicians as independent contractors constitutes a rather new phenomenon in the German health care system and emerged out of a growing ...economization and shortage of medical staff in the hospital sector. Locums are a special type of self-employed professionals who are only temporally embedded in organisational contexts of hospitals, and this might have consequences for their professional practice. Therefore, questions arise regarding how locums perceive their ethical duties as medical professionals.
In this first qualitative study on German locum physicians, the locums' own perspective is complemented by the viewpoint of permanently employed physician colleagues. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2014 to explore the professional practice of locum physicians from both groups' perspectives with respect to doctor-patient-relationship, cooperation with colleagues and physicians' role in society. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis, including a deductive application and an inductive development of codes. The results were related to key tenets of medical professionalism with respect to the question: how far do locums fulfil their ethical duties towards patients, colleagues and the society?
The study indicates that although ethical requirements are met broadly, difficulties remain with respect to close doctor-patient contact and the sustainability of hiring locums as a remedy in times of staff shortage.
Further qualitative and quantitative research on locum physicians' professional practice, including patient perspectives and economic health care system analyses, is needed to better understand the ethical impact of hiring independent contractors in the hospital sector.
In the course of worldwide reforms in health care systems, flexible employment is of increasing relevance in medicine and also includes the highly skilled workforce of hospital physicians. With ...reference to Hirschman’s seminal work on exit, voice and loyalty, this article analyzes the phenomenon of deploying locum tenens physicians as independent contractors in hospitals. The results of two qualitative empirical studies drawing on 30 qualitative interviews show conditions and consequences of exit–voice–loyalty behavior on different levels. On the meso level of organizations, locum tenens physicians help to enforce improvements in everyday hospital practices because as independent contractors, they gain a new, more autonomous position – they receive voice through exit.
Highly skilled freelance workers are mainly depicted as a challenge to trade unionism because of their mobility, market power and specific interests in organisational support. The authors explore the ...manifestations of collectivism of highly skilled freelance workers on the basis of semi-structured interviews with 14 highly skilled freelancers and 35 representatives of intermediaries such as trade unions, professional associations, staffing agencies and cooperatives in medicine, IT and film in Germany. The results reveal new forms and dynamics of labour market collectivism arising from concurrent conflicts and negotiations of job access and working conditions.
•Extensive Literature Review on Digitalization of Air Transportation.•Analysis Across three different Professional Work Groups (Pilots, Cabin Crew, Security Personnel).•Focus on Digital Work and the ...Human Factor and Organizational Implications.•Important Outlook regarding Work Conditions with e.g. Single Pilot Concepts.•Insights into Research Stream Developments in Air Transport.
Air freight logistics has always been on the forefront of technological and international collaboration developments. With the increasing integration of digital systems at airports, issues in human-technology interaction are becoming important for efficient logistics processes. This paper provides a literature review with 123 analyzed papers from 2010 to 2021 about the core developments regarding the collaboration of humans and digital systems. Whereas for example autopilots were seen as a comfortable addition in the past, today digital systems emerge that fundamentally change the role of human workers and collaborative processes. This has to be integrated on all levels of management, not least due to safety and security regulations to keep up quality and efficiency. The importance of digitalization trends is also reflected in a rising number of research publications: Most topics are security, human-technology interaction and performance measurement in the wake of digitalization at airports and in the air transportation sector.
In the context of the increased use of digital technologies at work and the various reported positive and negative outcomes for workers, this paper deals with the effects of internal corporate social ...responsibility (ICSR) and the digitalisation of work. The findings are based on a structured literature review identifying and synthesizing extant knowledge. A total of 57 papers are analysed regarding their contributions to the literature on digital transformation and ICSR. The results indicate that ICSR is partly implemented in a reactive way to mitigate negative effects of digitalisation at work, and partly in a proactive way to prevent them. The contributions relate (a) to the conceptualisation of digital work and its effects related to ICSR; (b) to the development of the concept of ICSR with a specific focus on digitalisation; and (c) to the derivation of a future research agenda. Finally, implications for research and practice are discussed to investigate further ICSR’s essential role in the interrelation between digitalisation and sustainability at work.
Digital technologies have inspired a change in volunteering in nonprofit organizations. In this context, the engagement of volunteers is mainly self-organized, through online platforms or apps. It is ...the aim of this paper to analyze the volunteers’ motives, differentiating between self-interest and other-interest. This is important, since effects on organizational volunteer-related outcomes, such as volunteer engagement, recruitment and retention, are likely to occur. A gift exchange perspective is applied and a case study has been used for investigating an online-based nonprofit organization in Germany, consisting of qualitative interviews with experts and volunteers, documentary analysis and participatory observations as well as an online survey. The results show that the volunteers’ instrumental self-interest in gaining food, and their interests in other factors, such as the reduction of food wastage as a societal goal, occur simultaneously. This leads to paradoxes and problems on the organizational level. This study contributes to understanding volunteer engagement, recruitment and retention in digital nonprofit organizations.
In control or out of control? Bardmann, Mona-Maria; Ruiner, Caroline; Künzel, Laura ...
Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation,
03/2023, Volume:
17, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Open access
Self-reliant digital systems (SDS) can adapt to changing circumstances and environments, evaluate complex situations, make decisions and optimise processes. In this context, work processes also ...change, since SDS are controlled by workers but are also partly out of control, that is, processing information independently and without worker influence. It can be expected that handling and interacting with SDS impact workers’ perception of autonomy and control and their interrelationship. This paper focuses on these developments at airports and is based on 24 interviews with airport and flight staff. The findings point to a difference between objective control and the perception of control. Moreover, we identify autonomy-enhancing and autonomy-restricting forms of control in contexts using SDS. In this sense, the article contributes to clarifying autonomy and control in the specific context of SDS at airports and conceptualising the interrelation of autonomy and control.
Digitalization supports the development of platform organizations, changing work relationships between individuals and organizations. This paper analyzes workers' perceptions of autonomy and control ...in for- and non-profit platform organizations. Based on a mixed-methods study combining qualitative interviews and a quantitative questionnaire in digital food supply chains, this contribution empirically evaluates the interrelation of autonomy and control for two German sample groups of riders and volunteers. The analysis shows that the perceptions of autonomy and control are constitutive of work outcomes and thus essential for understanding work relationships in platform organizations. These perceptions differ in for- and non-profit contexts, providing insights to motivation and labor processes in platform work.
In the last decades, managerial instruments have gained importance to medical decisions and the logic of managerialism is juxtaposed with the logic of medical professionalism. Recent changes in the ...hospital employment structure raise the question of contradictory logics not only at the organizational but also at the individual level. Therefore, we investigate the rise of locum doctors which is a relatively new phenomenon in Germany. Our qualitative interview study with 21 locum tenens, permanently employed physicians, and chief physicians shows that locum physicians re-contextualize professional standards in hospitals. According to their self-perception, patient care stays at the center of their medical practice regardless of economic, bureaucratic, and hierarchical requirements as well as hospital-specific routines. We argue that the interrelationship between professionalism and managerialism exists not only within organizations but also on an individual level of locum doctors.
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