Assistive technologies: Companion or controller? Appropriation instead of instruction
Abstract
Assistive digital technologies support employees in coping with complex activities by providing the necessary information directly related to the work task and according to the individual requirements. On the one hand, they have the potential to relieve people at work, for example by supporting physical assistance systems in physically demanding activities. Cognitive assistance systems can achieve relief by preparing complex data in a way that is comprehensible to the employee and supporting him in carrying out his work and in making decisions. On the other hand, assistance systems can lead to expropriation and alienation by depriving employees of autonomy and room for maneuver. This happens especially when the distribution of roles between the working person and the assistance system only provides the executive role for the human being and all decisions are determined by a technical system that supposedly has the greater stock of knowledge and intelligence. The question arises as to how a digital cognitive assistance system can help people to experience themselves as self-effective in their work and to develop further.
