Skip to main content

Mind or Machine? Opportunities and Limits of Automation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Impact of Digitalization in the Workplace

Part of the book series: Professional and Practice-based Learning ((PPBL,volume 21))

Abstract

Automation of work is not a new phenomenon. For businesses, technological development has an impact how enterprises organize work and production processes. Mechanical power has replaced some human workforces to eliminate unsafe work processes. New information and communication technologies have thus raised important questions as to what types of work can be replaced by technology and which require human decision-making and social and creative intelligence. This chapter discusses general developments in the automation of work and reflects on forecasts that have been made regarding changes in the labor market.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Autor, D. (2015). Why are there still so many jobs? The history and future of workplace automation. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3), 3–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Autor, D., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). The skill content of recent technological change: An empirical exploration. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4), 1279–1333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. New York: WW Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, J. X. (2016). The evolution of computing: AlphaGo. Computing in Science & Engineering, 18(4), 4–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deming, D. J. (2015). The growing importance of social skills in the labor market, The National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 21473. Cambridge, MA: NBER. Retrieved from: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ddeming/files/deming_socialskills_august2015.pdf.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S., Chiu, C., & Hong, Y. (1995). Implicit theories and their role in judgments and reactions: A world from two perspectives. Psychological Inquiry, 6, 267–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frey, C.B., & Osborne, M.A. (2013). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/future-of-employment.pdf

  • Frey, C.B., Osborne, M.A., & Holmes, G. (2016). Citi GPS: Global perspectives & solutions. Retrieved from https://www.citivelocity.com/citigps/ReportSeries.action?recordId=49

  • Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (1998). The origins of technology-skill complementarity. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113(3), 693–732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (2007). The race between education and technology: The evolution of U.S. educational wage differentials, 1890 to 2005, NBER working paper series. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12984.pdf.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Goos, M., & Manning, A. (2007). Lousy and lovely jobs: The rising polarization of work in Britain. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(1), 118–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goos, M., Manning, A., & Salomons, A. (2014). Explaining job polarization: Routine-biased technological change and offshoring. American Economic Review, 104(8), 2509–2526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagel, J. (2016). We need to expand our definition of entrepreneurship. Retrieved from. https://hbr.org/2016/09/we-need-to-expand-our-definition-of-entrepreneurship

  • Hytönen, K., Palonen, T., Lehtinen, E., & Hakkarainen, K. (2016). Between two advisors: Interconnecting academic and workplace settings in an emerging field. Vocations and Learning, 9(3), 333–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IBM. (2016). Watson health. Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/watson/health/

  • Kersting, N. B., Sherin, B. L., & Stigler, J. W. (2014). Automated scoring of teachers’ open-ended responses to video prompts: Bringing the classroom-video-analysis assessment to scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 74(6), 950–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komulainen, K., Naskali, P., Korhonen, M., & Keskitalo–Foley, S. (2011). Internal entrepreneurship: A Trojan horse of the neoliberal governance of education? Finnish pre- and in-service teachers’ implementation of and resistance towards entrepreneurship education. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 9(1), 342–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laschi, C., Mazzolai, B., & Cianchetti, M. (2016). Soft robotics: Technologies and systems pushing the boundaries of robot abilities. Science Robotics, 1(1), 1–11. Retrieved from http://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/1/1/eaah3690/tab-pdf.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, M.-C., & Huang, Y.-M. (2017). The use of data science for education: The case of social-emotional learning. Smart Learning Environments, 4(1), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nenkov, N., Dimitrov, G., Dyachenko, Y., & Koeva, K. (2016). Artificial intelligence technologies for personnel learning management systems. In R. Yager, V. Sgurev, M. Hadjiski, & V. Jotsov (Eds.), 2016 IEEE 8th international conference on intelligent systems (pp. 189–195). New York: IEEE. doi:10.1109/IS.2016.7737420.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2011). Creating capabilities: The human development approach. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Prince, M. J., & Felder, R. M. (2006). Inductive teaching and learning methods: Definitions, comparisons, and research bases. Journal of Engineering Education, 95(2), 123–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rintala, N., & Suolanen, S. (2005). The implications of digitalization for job descriptions, competencies and the quality of working life. Nordicom Review, 26(2), 53–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudner, L.M. (2009). Scoring and classifying examinees using measurement decision theory. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(8). Retrieved from http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=14&n=8.

  • Spencer-Scarr, D. (2014). Long tail leadership: Understanding soft power affecting organizations. In H. Rahman & R. D. de Sousa (Eds.), Information systems and technology for organizational agility, intelligence, and resilience (pp. 1–24). Hershey: Business Science Reference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strayer, J. F. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15(2), 171–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Economic Forum. (2016). The future of jobs: Employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. Retrieved from. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf

  • Yeager, D. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., Tirri, K., Nokelainen, P., & Dweck, C. S. (2011). Adolescents’ implicit theories predict desire for vengeance after peer conflicts: Correlational and experimental evidence. Developmental Psychology, 47(4), 1090–1107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petri Nokelainen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Nokelainen, P., Nevalainen, T., Niemi, K. (2018). Mind or Machine? Opportunities and Limits of Automation. In: Harteis, C. (eds) The Impact of Digitalization in the Workplace. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63257-5_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63257-5_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63256-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63257-5

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics