Satisfaction Gaps: New Realities in Managing Automation

Builds on prior research into the impact of automation on job characteristics, which found that co‐ordination, job autonomy, and work pace were reinforced by automation, while new skill requirements, job security and exertion remained unaffected. Job satisfaction correlates reveal the existence of elements both reinforced by automation and unrelated to job satisfaction. Such elements represent sources of operator indifference to the benefits of automation or satisfaction gaps, and they include interdepartmental task co‐ordination, discretion in making production decisions, confidence to complete tasks without supervision, the achievement of career goals, perceptual skills,security of records, and longer work hours in the post‐automation period.