A Conceptual Framework of Work-System Resilience Enablers for Technology Development

Humans are often the main source of resilience in work systems, responding to surprise events and variety in demands with resourcefulness, initiative, and flexibility that technologies generally lack. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence and automation technologies increasingly are developed to perform macrocognitive work such as planning and decision making in healthcare, transportation, national security, and other high-consequence domains. When developed without consideration for ways this work is performed to assure work system resilience, new technology risks compromising that resilience. We propose a conceptual framework of work system resilience, Transform with Resilience during Upgrades to Socio-Technical Systems (TRUSTS), that translates resilience concepts into work system requirements for technology development teams to consider. We developed TRUSTS in three phases: baseline framework development, specialization for technology development, and iterative refinement. We position the proposed framework relative to four influential bodies of research, describe early applications in technology development, and identify challenges and research needs.