Is Technology Managing You?

What is it about?

Technologies are rapidly changing how, when, and where we work. But did you know that increasingly we are being managed by algorithms? It is possible that your performance and work behaviors are already being monitored by technologies and algorithms. In some organisations, algorithms are also increasingly used to assign work tasks, make work schedules and assess your performance. In the gig-economy, workers working through platforms such as Uber or TaskRabbit are completely managed by algorithms. They have no human managers. What impact does algorithmic management have on our work motivation? We recently reviewed the emerging research on this topic to answer this question and unfortunately, the news is not so good. For the most part, algorithmic management worsens the satisfaction of our psychological needs when we work. It makes us feel less competent, sometimes because the pace of work is increased significantly, and sometimes because technologies decrease some of our skills because we use some of them less. They are also robbing us of our feelings of control and freedom because they monitor us and tell us what and how to do our work; sometimes they also pressure us to work faster. And they are decreasing our chances to create meaningful relationships with colleagues, as well as with our clients or other beneficiaries of our work. This is why our motivation is getting worse. To fix and avoid these issues in the future, we have concluded from this review that we need to advocate for the use of psychological knowledge when designing and implementing algorithmic management systems. Psychologists are well equipped to advise how to design and use technologies in ways that will maintain or even improve the design of our work and consequently our motivation, performance and well-being.

Featured Image

Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Why is this important? Because work motivation that stems from meaning and enjoyment will be increasingly important in the future of work. Indeed, as work environments and career trajectories become more dynamic and uncertain, we need workers to be more proactive and flexible. And motivation through meaning and enjoyment makes people more proactive and flexible.

Perspectives