The Role of Trust in Workers’ Attitudes Toward Automation Implementation
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis investigates the development of trust during the implementation of automation and its impact on workers’ attitudes and behaviors in a high-risk operational environment. Drawing on a case study of the Port of Norway (PONW), the research examines the lived experiences of engineers, stevedores, contractors, operations, the project team, and managers as automation transformed their work processes, roles, and identities. The study reveals that the initial optimism shared by engineers and stevedores, anchored in professional identity, technical pride, and trust in the institution, gradually gave way to skepticism and fatigue. Engineers and stevedores increasingly perceived automation as something done to them rather than with them, undermining their sense of inclusion and shared purpose. Meanwhile, contractors, operations, management, and the project team were often living in a parallel reality. Over time, as communication fractured, inclusion narrowed, and managerial transparency diminished, confidence in both leadership and technology eroded, reframing automation from a collective achievement to a top-down and contractor-driven imposition. Using a constructivist, qualitative case study design, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews, internal records, and public communications. A combined thematic and narrative analysis traced the temporal dynamics of trust across three phases: anticipation, implementation, and renegotiation. Findings revealed that trust in the automation project was dynamic and contingent, oscillating between moments of confidence and disillusionment. Episodes of transparency, such as demonstrations, joint problem-solving, and technical collaboration, temporarily restored belief in the project’s competence. At the same time, communication breakdowns, perceived exclusion, and symbolic secrecy eroded the moral and institutional foundations of trust among workers. Building on Hoff and Bashir’s (2015) layered model of trust, t…
abstract: This thesis investigates the development of trust during the implementation of automation and its impact on workers’ attitudes and behaviors in a high-risk operational environment. Drawing on a case study of the Port of Norway (PONW), the research examines the lived experiences of engineers, stevedores, contractors, operations, the project team, and managers as automation transformed their work processes, roles, and identities. The study reveals that the initial optimism shared by engineers and stevedores, anchored in professional identity, technical pride, and trust in the institution, gradually gave way to skepticism and fatigue. Engineers and stevedores increasingly perceived automation as something done to them rather than with them, undermining their sense of inclusion and shared purpose. Meanwhile, contractors, operations, management, and the project team were often living in a parallel reality. Over time, as communication fractured, inclusion narrowed, and managerial transparency diminished, confidence in both leadership and technology eroded, reframing automation from a collective achievement to a top-down and contractor-driven imposition. Using a constructivist, qualitative case study design, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews, internal records, and public communications. A combined thematic and narrative analysis traced the temporal dynamics of trust across three phases: anticipation, implementation, and renegotiation. Findings revealed that trust in the automation project was dynamic and contingent, oscillating between moments of confidence and disillusionment. Episodes of transparency, such as demonstrations, joint problem-solving, and technical collaboration, temporarily restored belief in the project’s competence. At the same time, communication breakdowns, perceived exclusion, and symbolic secrecy eroded the moral and institutional foundations of trust among workers. Building on Hoff and Bashir’s (2015) layered model of trust, t…
author: Hubbard, Patricia
license: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm
date published: 2025
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:05:30Z
provider: University of Auckland
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: ResearchSpace@Auckland

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2292/75496