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0:00
This talk is about
the opportunities and
implications of the
digital transformation
that we see all around us.
I focus on what is
happening in companies.
My name is Steven Dhondt.
I am a professor at the Belgium
Catholic University of
Leuven, the KU Leuven.
At the same time,
I am a researcher
at the Dutch Research
Institute, TNO,
one of the three
largest research and
technology organisations
in Europe.
I'm presenting to
you from several
major research programmes
that I have conducted
and understanding what
impacts technology
may have on business
and on work.
0:37
In my talk, I shall
discuss that there are
different perspectives
on what this
digital transformation means
for business and work.
The first perspective I shall
look at is the idea that
new technology is mainly
abolishing tasks and workplaces,
which is called the
substitution perspective.
The second perspective
is the idea that
most digital
technologies strengthen
the capabilities of workers,
which I call the
augmentation perspective.
Both perspectives contain
different predictions
of what happens in
business and in work.
To these perspectives,
we want to add the
organisational perspective.
Our observation is that in
understanding what impacts
technology may have,
we need to determine
to what degree
workers can control
digital technology.
The organisational
perspective allows us to
align with new policy
proposals presented by
the European Commission
called Industry 5.0.
1:30
The starting point of my
talk is to explain what we
mean by digital transformation.
Within our societies,
we have been working
with computers for
nearly 70 years.
Computers need to work with
structured input
in bits and bytes,
transformed into computer code.
Until very recently, computers
could only steer
production processes,
machines, and
persons indirectly.
For example, computers
could generate orders,
but these needed to
be fed into machines
and given to persons.
Over the past decade,
we have been able to digitalise
technology even further,
connect people,
processes and organisations,
and build decision
systems that do not need
the help of a human
to intervene.
As a result, organisations are
starting to work in
an automatic way.
