Autonomy and Control in Digital Work Contexts of High-reliability Organizations: The Cases of Medical Centers and Airports (ANDROMEDA)

Currently, digitalization processes are fundamentally changing work environments and affecting employees' perceptions of autonomy and control. The perception of autonomy and control is essential for the work actions of employees in organizations. This particularly affects high reliability organizations such as hospitals and security networks as well as airports. The goal of this project is to analyze employees' perceptions of autonomy and control in digital work contexts of high reliability organizations. The domains focused on here are hospitals and airports. Hospitals provide basic and vital medical services. Airports are significant centers of national and international passenger and freight traffic with critical security and mobility functions for the economy and society. Both contexts are particularly affected by digitization steps such as in the areas of patient administration and passenger and cargo handling through mobile smartphone applications. In both cases, the workplaces have a high technology standard, the teams are highly specialized, exposed to high physical and psychological stress, often have a rapidly changing work intensity, process a large amount of data, are confronted with critical decision-making situations, and act in situations where small mistakes can have fatal consequences. In such contexts, perceptions of autonomy and control and the resulting effects on work actions and team collaboration are therefore critical.

A mixed-methods study design is designed to provide insight into employees' perceptions of autonomy and control and cooperation in hospitals and airports. The empirical research approach is composed of (1) expert interviews with strategic leadership of organizations, (2) participant observations (including observational interviews), and (3) problem-centered interviews with employees in hospitals and airports. The qualitative results thus obtained are complemented by a (4) quantitative survey comparing perceptions of autonomy and control in different digital work contexts. The observed changes are related to a consideration of developments on the micro and meso levels and include the dimensions of "penetration", "making available" and "making independent" for the employees concerned. The results of the research project are significant for the discussion of autonomy and control as well as the effects of digitization steps for employees and their cooperation specifically in high reliability organizations as well as digital work design in the logistics and service sector in general.