Digital Transformations in the Challenge of Activity and Work

Introduction

There has been an acceleration in technological change within the workplace. This is because innovations and the deployment of technical solutions are multiplying (AI, robotization, immersive environment, Big Data, collaborative platforms, factory of the future, etc.). At best, the implementation of these new devices provokes simple transfers of use and learning (which are iterative or incremental technologies), and, at worst, they provoke real disruptions in use (which are disruptive technologies) (Bobillier Chaumon 2016). These can require a profound rethinking of the user experience, which can cause employees to fail and make it more difficult for them to carry out their activity. Therefore, new organizational and socio-cognitive models are required, as the devices call for alternative ways of thinking, doing and collaborating at work.

Professional activity thus depends less and less on the direct intervention of individuals in terms of the object of work than on their actions within these digital work environments, that is, on technological artifacts that mediate this activity. This distancing phenomenon is consubstantial with the quality of the “human–machine” systems used: if a system is complex to use (i.e. designed with an insufficient level of usability) or if it is difficult to attribute meaning to this technical artifact to make it a truly useful and enabling instrument for one’s activity (notion of situated acceptance), the individual can be expected ...