You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF
Having reached the end of this book, we will now draw a provisional conclusion and give an outlook on further projects. As already mentioned in the introduction (Hartmann and Shajek 2022, this volume), the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) has been working on the future of work for many years. In the publications of the 2010–2020 decade (in particular the volumes by Botthof and Hartmann 2015; Wischmann and Hartmann, 2018), the main aim was to present fundamental theories on the then still new topic of Industry 4.0, to initiate a socio-political discourse, and subsequently to compile and focus on practical examples from the field of research and development.
In the early 2020s, a new substantive focus was then set on digital sovereignty and outlined in its complexity with two edited volumes (Hartmann 2021, 2022). In the present publication, we now put the workplace in the center and focus on the opportunities, possibilities, and limits of digital sovereignty from a wide range of academic disciplines, for different industries and in different parts of the world. What becomes clear is: Digitalization now permeates almost every aspect of our workplace, it has complex and multi-layered effects, and it can only be analyzed here by way of example.
At the same time, our work is characterized by a fundamentally optimistic view: Digitalization can enable sovereignty in the first place or promote sovereignty and open up the scope for action, for example, with the help of digital assistance systems (see the contribution by Bächler and Behrendt 2022, this volume) or through the possibilities of digitally supported education (see the contributions by Kanyane 2022, this volume and Windelband 2022, this volume). In addition, approaches are presented to positively shape the change towards digital work. The underlying assumption here is that there is also freedom of choice in the digital workplace and no technological determinism (see also Botthof and Hartmann 2015). All facets resulting from the dimensions transparency and explainability, confidence and freedom of action for people, and technology and organization (Hartmann and Shajek 2022, this volume) can be positively influenced.
This focus inevitably leaves out some aspects that will, however, also be of central importance for the (digital) future of work: From a work psychology perspective, these include questions of psychological stress resulting from the changed working conditions and corresponding occupational health management issues (some individual aspects are, however, dealt with in the article by Mayer et al. 2022, in this volume). But there are also many aspects arising from the digitalization of workplaces for the interactions of employees, e.g., for the cooperation between supervisors and their employees. In this context, these are common conditions for success in digital work (see, e.g., Busch-Heizmann et al. 2021). Digital work platforms are also given far less consideration (cf. Hartmann and Shajek 2022, in this volume), which might be a consequence of the editors’ one-sided German perspective. Questions of the cognitive-enhancement debate also remain largely untouched.
However, the topic of the future of work has not yet come to a close for us: We are already planning another volume with which we want to deepen the understanding of digital sovereignty at the corporate level (or any other type of organization). In particular, the publication intends to support management-level actors in designing strategies, products, structures, and processes to improve digital sovereignty. Topics include external challenges to organizational autonomy, such as the nature of digital products and markets, legal frameworks, and industry policies related to digital markets and products. Managing digital sovereignty at the enterprise level shall be addressed, with topics including, e.g., skills development or risk management as well as product and service design in support of digital sovereignty. Also planned are case studies to illustrate conditions for success.
We hope therefore to be able to provide one or two impulses in the future that will at least maintain and, if possible, promote the ability of companies and employees to act in the face of the constantly expanding capabilities of digital technologies.
Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to all authors for their multifaceted contributions. Thank you for giving us a profound insight into the aspects of digital work to which you devote your research. Without such constructive and smooth cooperation, the publication of this work would not have been possible. Our thanks also goes to our colleagues at the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit), in particular Désirée Tillack, Alexandra Lescher, and Pierre Dombrowski, for their excellent support.
Alexandra Shajek and Ernst Hartmann in November 2022.
References
Bächler, L., Behrendt, H.: Participation in work of people with disabilities by means of technical assistance. In: Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (Eds.) New Digital Work: Digital Sovereignty at the Workplace, pp. 118–134. Springer, Cham (2022)
Botthof, A., Hartmann, E.A. (eds.): Zukunft der Arbeit in Industrie 4.0. Springer, Heidelberg (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45915-7
Busch-Heizmann, A., Shajek, A., Brandt, A., Nerger, M., Peters, R.: Fallstudien zu den Auswirkungen der Corona-Krise auf betriebliche Transformationsprozesse. Begleitforschung zur Arbeitsweltberichterstattung im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS), Band 3 (2021)
Hartmann, E.A. (ed.): Digitalisierung souverän gestalten. Springer, Heidelberg (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-62377-0
Hartmann, E.A. (ed.): Digitalisierung souverän gestalten II. Springer, Heidelberg (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64408-9
Hartmann, A., Shajek, A.: New digital work and digital sovereignty at the workplace – an introduction. In: Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (eds.) New Digital Work: Digital Sovereignty at the Workplace, pp. 1–15. Springer, Cham (2023)
Kanyane, M.: Digital work – transforming the higher education landscape in South Africa. In: Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (Eds.) New Digital Work: Digital Sovereignty at the Workplace, pp. 149–160. Springer, Cham (2023)
Mayer, A., Chardonnet, J.R., Häfner, P., Ovtcharova, J.: Collaborative work enabled by immersive environments. In: Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (Eds.) New Digital Work: Digital Sovereignty at the Workplace, pp. 87–117. Springer, Cham (2023)
Windelband, L.: Artificial intelligence and assistance systems for technical vocational education and training: opportunities and risks. In: Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (Eds.) New Digital Work: Digital Sovereignty at the Workplace, pp. 195–213. Springer, Cham (2023)
Wischmann, S., Hartmann, E.A. (eds.): Zukunft der Arbeit – Eine praxisnahe Betrachtung. Springer, Heidelberg (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49266-6
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (2023). A Final Word. In: Shajek, A., Hartmann, E.A. (eds) New Digital Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26490-0_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26490-0_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-26489-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-26490-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)