Competing with smart machines: the dark side of ‘conjoined agency’ in contemporary organizations

While many are concerned about Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled automation and the threat of mass technological unemployment, this paper contributes to a stream of organizational research that suggests semi-automation is a more probable scenario. A growing subtheme in this stream emphasizes ‘conjoined agency’, where employees collaborate with smart machines rather than be subordinated by them. In this paper, we argue that conjoined agency has a hitherto unexamined dark side. Building on an in-depth qualitative study of passenger train drivers and their managers in the United Kingdom, we demonstrate how drivers require taxing levels of stamina to successfully work with the algorithms and semi-automated train systems. This is exacerbated by what we call an ideology of automation, notably threats from management that driverless trains are imminent. Drivers feel compelled to compete with these prospective robots. We term this human robotic mimesis, where workers attempt (but often fail) to perform like robots. By exploring this dark side of conjoined agency, we propose that it isn’t only the practical application of new automating technologies that is shaping organizational life but their ideological evocation within specific power relationships.<p></p>