Abstract
This paper focuses on technical‐maintenance worker perspectives on the insertion of digitised drone technologies in the European steel industry. The industry is aiming for a ‘business model transformation’ by means of digitalisation, which includes the use of drone technologies for maintenance functions. In this paper, we explore on what basis might such workers embrace or resist this new technology. Drawing on data from a project investigating the use of drones for a ‘safer, faster and leaner’ workplace, we employ an analysis of technology ‘effects’ to discuss the risks and benefits to workers of drone technologies (see Orlikowski, Organ. Sci., 3, 1992, 398; Edwards and Ramirez, New Technol. Work Employ., 31, 2016, 99). The insertion and use of drone technology within the industry raises questions for the industry’s highly skilled workers and their representatives on the ‘effect’ of drone innovations on the industry’s existing structures and patterns of work.
Highlights
An increasingly discussed feature of work and employment is the emergence of the ‘digital workplace’
The purpose of this paper is to offer an account of the Industry 4.0 workplace and the ‘effects’ of a specific piece of digitised robotic technology, that is unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones
Drones are a powerful and innovative technology, but we can only speculate on whether they will be deployed systematically and with what specific ‘effects’ on work and employment—this is what we asked of our interviewees: anticipate the introduction of drones and determine the ‘effects’, with regard to potential risks and benefits, as understood within the context of steel industry workplace structures, tasks and routines
Summary
This paper focuses on technical-maintenance worker perspectives on the insertion of digitised drone technologies in the European steel industry. The industry is aiming for a ‘business model transformation’ by means of digitalisation, which includes the use of drone technologies for maintenance functions. We explore on what basis might such workers embrace or resist this new technology. Drawing on data from a project investigating the use of drones for a ‘safer, faster and leaner’ workplace, we employ an analysis of technology ‘effects’ to discuss the risks and benefits to workers of drone technologies The insertion and use of drone technology within the industry raises questions for the industry’s highly skilled workers and their representatives on the ‘effect’ of drone innovations on the industry’s existing structures and patterns of work
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