Posted by Have you ever wondered where the artificial manager will work? Will it be a production hall, a factory full of machines and robots, or perhaps a group of people? Of course, you can imagine that the artificial manager manages other robots. However, that would be too simple. Devices working with devices is not a challenge that could change the world.
So where will the artificial manager’s place of work be?
Among humans. That’s why it’s worth understanding how complex and complicated this environment is.
The human manager always works in the human collective [1]. In management science, this is usually a closed collective, “based on correlated interaction of action”, within a specific organization or group of a particular type of organization. [2] In management science, it is customary to treat organizations precisely as human collectivities.
Detailing the functioning of an individual in an organization, it can be assumed that he or she functions in a social group. A social group is “a certain number of people (at least three), linked by a system of relations regulated by an institution, having certain common values and separated from other collectivities by a clear principle of separateness.” [3] This definition in the context of the system of organizational terms needs a slight change due to two aspects. First, the word “institution” in the sense of organizational size arrangement means “organization.” Second, the number of people does not have to be three, but according to the definition of a group encountered in the literature: also two.
The components of a social group are:
- members and their characteristics,
- rules that determine the identity of the group and its continuity,
- the tasks of the group,
- functions of its members,
- the means of accomplishing the group’s tasks,
- psychosocial mechanisms produced for the performance of tasks,
- elements that maintain the group’s internal cohesion,
- patterns of interactions and relationships,
- measures regulating members’ tangents,
- measures regulating interactions,
- measures regulating relations of members of other groups,
- material elements,
- symbols and values that underpin the group’s persistence and integration. [4]
Members of the social group, which will be managed by the artificial manager, meet the following conditions:
- “relatively permanent spatial connectivity, or at least systematic spatial contacts and accompanying social contacts,
- a sense of bonding, community within a certain collectivity and a sense of separateness from people outside this collectivity,
- interdependence, especially the division of activities and cooperation within a certain collective behavior,
- similarity of important social characteristics of an absolute nature, especially similarity of cultural characteristics, recognition of common value patterns,
- similarity of important social characteristics of a relative nature, in particular, occupation of a similar position within the distribution of economic wealth, the ladder of power, the hierarchy of prestige.” [5]
The social group in the organization, which will be managed by the artificial manager, should have four main characteristics:
- existence of distinctiveness,
- organization (structure – author’s note) internal,
- existence of “we” consciousness,
- the sharing of certain values by the participants. [3]
In summary, the work environment of an artificial manager is a place where people shape their reality, usually together with some human manager. And a robot will have to step into this role, recognizing, for example, the consciousness of “we,” the values of its team members, the sense of separateness of the team from the rest of the company, the functions of the team members, the patterns of interaction, and so on. Isn’t your head spinning from this? And what will the artificial manager say about it? And what processes will he have to deal with on a daily basis in his work?
You’ll find out in the next blog post.
[1] Zakrzewska-Bielawska, A. (2012). Istota procesu zarzadzania. In: Podstawy zarządzania. Teoria i ćwiczenia. A. Zakrzewska-Bielawska (Ed). Wolters Kluwer: Warszawa.
[2] Smirnow, P. (2013). Osobowość jako społeczny wymiar natury człowieka. Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis, Studia Sociologica, V(2), 13-28.
[3] J. Szczepański, J (1970). Elementarne pojęcia socjologii. PWN: Warszawa.
[4] Sundel, M. (1985). Individual Change Through Small Groups. The Free Press of McMillan: New York.
[5] Nowak, S. (2005). Metodologia badań socjologicznych. PWN: Warszawa.