It’s still about the people: How technology and corporate culture shape each other

Robots are not (yet) taking over the world. This doomsday scenario has become ingrained in the collective subconscious to the point of spawning a new breed of automation anxiety amongst workers. However, the critical risks of increasingly ubiquitous technology in organisations are actually about people.

Technology choices are generally based on a multi-variable equation: strategy and budget, legacy systems still in use and resources available for a digital transformation. Yet in most cases the rate of success for technology implementation, and for the subsequent change management process, is defined by the degree of compatibility between the technology and ‘the way we do things around here’. It would appear that after culture eats strategy for breakfast, it proceeds to having technology for lunch and, in some cases, the executive team’s reputations for dinner.

To better outline the risks arising at the intersection of disruptive technology (that is, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, virtual reality and more) and of corporate culture we have brought together our cyber, employment and ethics experts. Each of the articles below discusses a specific case study, and outlines the great opportunities that come with new ways of working and the risks that inevitably accompany them.

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