Designing Digital Work – A Tale of Two Complexities

Abstract

AbstractDigital work is becoming ubiquitous across a range of fields, ranging from production to services. Besides the effects of automation on the job market, it changes job contents and job demands for those holding jobs. Such jobs are characterized by high information load, higher levels of autonomy, performance diversity and growth potential. Respective jobs, tasks and work environments are often characterized with the term complexity. Paradigms, strategies, tools, and practices of work design must keep up with the affordances of so-called complex sociotechnical systems. However, understanding and conceptualization of complexity in work design are still rather superficial. In healthcare, sometimes labeled as a paradigm for complexity, a rising dissatisfaction with this state can be noticed and a lack of progress in patient safety is lamented. Drawing upon systems theory and its variant systems thinking, an integrated approach to work design is sketched out with reference to healthcare. This approach allows for a more systematic treatment of complexity with its two main strategies of complexity reduction and complexity management. Finally, the transfer of this approach into teaching is discussed within the field of work & organizational psychology at a university of applied science.