AI from the Bottom-Up:
Can Work Crafting
Save Jobs?
Maybe our own?
Terri L. Griffith
Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation &
Entrepreneurship
Simon Fraser University
[Link]
Field Research?
Executive Education?
Course Redesign?
Rough Timeline of My Research:
How People Come to Understand & Use Tech at Work
Laser
Computer
Telecommuting Measuring in
Monitoring
Production
Collaborative Negotiated Crowd-based
Technologies Change Organizing
ML for Generative AI
Work Crafting Systems & Work
Savvy Crafting
Rough Timeline of My Research:
How People Come to Understand & Use Tech at Work
Telecommuting Laser
Computer
• (Olson, 1983) Measuring in
Monitoring
Production
Collaborative Negotiated Crowd-based
Technologies Change Organizing
ML for Generative AI
Work Crafting Systems & Work
Savvy Crafting
Sociotechnical Systems → Thinking in 5T
Cognitive Information Processing → Groups/Teams
ChatGPT:
I’ve created the
image depicting a
whimsical scene of
a woman with just
enough computer
programming skills
to be humorously
“dangerous”
AI
Offers Individuals
Great Opportunity
Early Evidence:
Copilot in
Knowledge
Work
Microsoft Study: Cambon, A., et al. (2023), Early LLM-based Tools for Enterprise Information Workers
Early Evidence: ChatGPT at BCG
Dell'Acqua, F., McFowland, E., Mollick, E. R., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Kellogg, K., Rajendran, S., ... & Lakhani, K. R. (2023). Navigating
the jagged technological frontier: Field experimental evidence of the effects of AI on knowledge worker productivity and
quality. Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Working Paper, (24-013).
Brynjolfsson, E.
(2022). The
Turing trap: The
promise & peril
of human-like
artificial
intelligence
50 % Tasks
LLMs Affected
10 % Tasks Affected
Eloundou, T., Manning, S., Mishkin, P., & Rock, D. (2023). GPTs are GPTs: An early look at the labor
market impact potential of large language models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.10130.
N=7,776
[Link]
Work
Crafting to
the Rescue
Work Crafting
Independent
(Not Manager Directed)
Adjustments to Work
Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active
crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179-201.
Empowering
Work Crafting Leadership /
Self-
Independent Management
(Not Manager Hill, Axtell, Raghuram,
Directed) & Nurmi, N. (2022).
Unpacking virtual
Adjustments to work's dual effects on
employee well-being:
Work An integrative review
and future research
agenda. JOM
Work Crafting
Can
Increase Performance
Bruning, P. F., & Campion, M. A. (2018). A role–resource approach–avoidance model of
job crafting: A multimethod integration and extension of job crafting theory. Academy of
Management Journal, 61(2), 499-522.
Little Crafting Research
Acknowledges
Technology
Bruning & Campion (2018)
Griffith, T.L. (2024).
Technology into the Foreground of Work Crafting.
Teamwork Adds Additional Complexity
Faultlines and AI: Similarity vs. Complementarity-Based
Alignments in Teams
Bezrukova, Griffith, Rice, Yang, Spell, & Grijalva (2024)
Bots Can Play Gupta, Kim, Glikson &
Group Facilitation Roles Woolley, (2024).
Unfortunately,
People Aren’t Innately
Good at Work Design
Parker et al. (2019). Poor work
design begets poor work
design: Journal of Applied
Psychology
Matt Beane, UC Santa Barbara
“Without guidance, some
employees will race *far*
ahead with generative AI,
but their collective sprint
will be incoherent and
uneven.”
[Link]
Matt Beane, UC Santa Barbara
“Some will run in circles.”
[Link]
Matt Beane, UC Santa Barbara
“Some will cause harm, or
slow others down.”
[Link]
Matt Beane, UC Santa Barbara
“Some will make
stupendously valuable
discoveries.”
[Link]
Matt Beane
“Most will do a little
something. Others will
ignore the reskilling and
work redesign
challenge entirely.”
[Link]
Barb’s Description of
What Managers and Workers are
Taking On
…without training in
work design
We Can Help
People Craft
Their Work
with AI
“…generative AI is particularly well-suited
to “bottom-up” development and use
based on workforce experimentation.”
There’s a Need
Carlos & Barb’s
Comments on
Preference for
Individual
Contributor Roles
We Have Tools
Systems Savvy and
Worker Sentiment:
Large Scale [ML]
Methods for Studying
Individual Responses to
Work
Griffith, Kaligotla,
MacLeod, Boury, Jain,
& Gupta (2024)
Field Research?
Executive Education?
Course Redesign?
Systems Savvy
Assessment for
Work Crafting with AI?
Create an Interactive
Vocabulary for
Crafting with AI?
Idea triggered during conversation with
MOT alum and healthcare innovator Rachel Barker
There Are
Challenges
We don’t have 40 years
There Are &
Challenges
Don’t Want
Another Pandemic
Countries Where Google Workspace Labs is
Not Available
Organizational Design
versus
People Management
Slides Special Issue Groups & AI
(Download for Best Formatting) (June 1)
Framework
Prompt:
Fill-in-the-Blank
Personalized Playbook Generation &
Additional Resources
[Link]
[Link]/msdownloa
ds/Microsoft-
Education_AI-[Link]
[Link]
[Link]/msdownloa
ds/Microsoft-
Education_AI-[Link]
[Link]
Griffith (2024) Draft
Griffith (2024) Draft
AI from the Bottom-Up:
Can Work Crafting
Save Jobs?
Maybe our own?
Terri L. Griffith
Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation &
Entrepreneurship
[Link]
