“Robots at Work”

Abstract

Abstract The idea of working robots has been coined already in the 1920s, and became discussed very seriously in the 1950s and the 1960s, especially in the context of the Cold War. In the 1970s, the debates concerned possible effects of automation, but it had faded out in the 1980s. Now the topic is back, due partly to the actual automatization of much industry work, to the ongoing war, and the space race. At present, the expression “robots at work” is being used both as a metaphor and as a label in texts belonging to popular culture, media, and social sciences. While the difference between the two uses is of interest as such, even more interesting is how such labels and metaphors are being interpreted. Interpretations vary from utopian to dystopian, with very few balanced and realistic. This chapter contains a review of the most popular uses and their interpretations in organization and management literature.