Cognitive workers» perception of work automation

The pur­po­se of this wor­king paper is to pro­vi­de an intro­duc­tion to the issue of auto­ma­tion of men­tal work. This paper reports on explo­ra­to­ry quali­ta­ti­ve rese­arch based on semi-struc­tu­red inte­rviews with 13 mid­dle mana­gers in mul­ti­na­tio­nal cor­po­ra­tions pro­vi­ding busi­ness servi­ces. The first part of the text descri­bes the con­text of the stu­dy with an expla­na­tion of key con­cepts such as the digi­tal eco­no­my, know­led­ge wor­kers and auto­ma­tion. The second part pre­sents the sta­te of rese­arch on the sub­ject from the per­spec­ti­ve of the socio­lo­gy of work. The third part intro­du­ces the rese­arch methods and tools, as well as the cha­rac­te­ri­stics of the respon­dents. The fourth, main part of the text, pre­sents the pre-inter­pre­ted empi­ri­cal mate­rial divi­ded into four main the­ma­tic are­as: 1) work auto­ma­tion under­stan­ding, 2) the impact of auto­ma­tion on employ­ment, 3) con­flicts ari­sing from the imple­men­ta­tion of new tech­no­lo­gi­cal solu­tions, 4. the impact of new tech­no­lo­gies and mana­ge­ment stra­te­gies on pro­fes­sio­nal prac­ti­ce. The fifth and final sec­tion con­ta­ins a sum­ma­ry and sug­ge­stions for the con­cep­tu­ali­sa­tion of the research.