When Harry, the Human, Met Sally, the Software Robot: Metaphorical Sensemaking and Sensegiving Around an Emergent Digital Technology

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aut.relation.endpage026839622311574
aut.relation.journalJournal of Information Technology
aut.relation.startpage026839622311574
dc.contributor.authorTechatassanasoontorn, Angsana A
dc.contributor.authorWaizenegger, Lena
dc.contributor.authorDoolin, Bill
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-12T00:14:15Z
dc.date.available2023-04-12T00:14:15Z
dc.date.issued2023-01-30
dc.description.abstractRobotic process automation (RPA) is often used in organisational digitalisation efforts to automate work processes. RPA, and the software robots at its heart, is an equivocal and contentious technology Adopting the products of theorising approach, this study views metaphors as central sensemaking and sensegiving devices that shape the interpretation of RPA among stakeholders towards a preferred reality of ways of seeing and experiencing software robots. The empirical materials are drawn from research in three Australasian organisations that have implemented RPA. Grounding our analysis in the domains-interaction model, we identified three root metaphors: person, robot, and tool, their constitutive conceptual metaphors, and intended use as heuristics devices. Our findings show that metaphor is a powerful device that employees rely on to make sense of their experiences with a new digital technology that can potentially shape their roles, work practices and job design. In addition, managers and automation team members intentionally leverage metaphors to shape others’ perceptions of a software robot’s capabilities and limitations, its implication for human work, and its expanding benefits for organisations over time, among others. Metaphor as a precursor to more formal theory provides scholars with a vocabulary to understand disparate experiences with an emergent automation technology that can be further developed to generate a theory of seeing automation and working with automated agents.
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Information Technology, ISSN: 0268-3962 (Print); 1466-4437 (Online), SAGE Publications, 026839622311574-026839622311574. doi: 10.1177/02683962231157426
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/02683962231157426
dc.identifier.issn0268-3962
dc.identifier.issn1466-4437
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/16073
dc.languageen
dc.publisherSAGE Publications
dc.relation.urihttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02683962231157426
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subject46 Information and Computing Sciences
dc.subject4608 Human-Centred Computing
dc.subject08 Information and Computing Sciences
dc.subject15 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
dc.subject17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
dc.subjectInformation Systems
dc.subject35 Commerce, management, tourism and services
dc.subject46 Information and computing sciences
dc.subject52 Psychology
dc.titleWhen Harry, the Human, Met Sally, the Software Robot: Metaphorical Sensemaking and Sensegiving Around an Emergent Digital Technology
dc.typeJournal Article
pubs.elements-id491708
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