Come cambia il lavoro con la tecnologia robotica? Un’analisi organizzativa

The increasing adoption of robotic technology in the workplace is promoting extensive research endeavors on the role of humans in the future of work. In this paper, we present a qualitative multiple-case study about work transformation in robotic-assisted medical rehabilitation. Albeit many studies focus the material technology and its impact on the organization, we see human-robot interaction as a social phenomenon, being processual and relational in nature. We envision technology as the technical plane of work action and study how it transforms as the material technology enlarges and includes the use of robots. Our findings show that the material technology enables a change that entails all the planes of the organizational action: the goals, the technology, and the relations. This transformation does not reduce the role of humans in work activities, but rather it enables a transformation in their action that concerns the modes of coordination and the design of work activities.