The Challenge of Socio-Technical Work Design
An Essay on the open issues of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0
Abstract
This essay examines the challenges of socio-technical work design in the current phase of economic and industrial transformation. It demonstrates how these challenges are approached differently within the Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 concepts. Despite these divergences, it is argued that both visions draw on the socio-technical systems approach to designing human-centred work. The start-ing point is the principle of joint optimisation of the socio-technical approach, whereby the interfaces between the technology, human and organisational sub-systems can be considered the central design options. However, from a socio-logical point of view, the socio-technical systems approach is criticised for being overly voluntaristic. This is because it focuses solely on the micro-level of work process. It overlooks structural conditions of work that extend beyond this and have a lasting influence on the socio-technical design of work. It is particularly evident in the context of the current phase of crisis and industrial transfor-mation.
Finally, prospects for the debate on socio-technical work design and human-centred work, as well as the broader concepts of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, are con-sidered in the context of industrial transformation. It is presumed that the fu-ture of this discussion, particularly regarding human-centred work design, as well as the concepts of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 in general, is characterised by signif-icant uncertainty. Given the crisis-level challenges of the industrial transfor-mation, it is assumed that the debate on human-centred work and the concepts of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 will lose their current political relevance.
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