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Improving Work Autonomy in Workflow Systems: A Configuration Choice
Abstract
Despite their great potential and wide industrial use, workflow management systems have generated substantial controversy. While some believe that the technology relieves office workers from simple coordination work, others fear that Tayloristic work principles have re-entered the work floor. This paper builds on the assumption that workflow management systems provide a wealth of configuration options, which can be used either to increase or decrease the autonomy of end-users and, hence, their job satisfaction and productivity. A fine-grained model of work distribution is proposed, which is used to clarify how actual configuration decisions in this context are expected to impact on work autonomy. Using this model, a case study into the configuration of a small set of industrial workflow implementations has taken place. It shows that actual configuration choices tend to restrict end-users in their autonomy, although different configurations seem feasible. Companies employing this technology should become aware of the opportunities to make their workflow implementations more attractive for end-users to work with.
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