Theorising Robotic Process Automation as Socio-Technical Change: A Process Study

Abstract

Robotic process automation (RPA) is increasingly adopted as a relatively inexpensive automation solution to reduce routinised and repetitive tasks and to initiate an organisation’s broader automation programme. Prior research has focused on highlighting RPA benefits for organisations with suggestions on how to maximise benefits and avoid challenges in RPA implementation. There is less understanding of the emergent and dynamic nature of RPA implementation. Drawing on key elements of socio-technical change, we conducted a process study of RPA implementation in a university. From our analysis, we identified five process patterns: initiation, mobilisation, configuration, adaptation, and evaluation, each of which has different implications for organisational trajectories of RPA implementation. Our findings also offer insights into how the changing role of RPA as an epistemic, technical, and agentic object is intertwined with the dynamics of automation and augmentation in RPA’s conception, development, incorporation into work routines, and evaluation of the initiative’s future.