Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
Future of Work and Dystopian Literature:
Thoughts and Reflections
Khurram Ellahi Khan and Hassan Rasool
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad
rasool.hassan@gmail.com
Abstract
Frequently the world of innovation and discoveries give credit to eminent works of fiction for
glancing into the future. Fiction writers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, who
reveal truth that reality obscures. Science related to the workplace has started looking backward
to move forward and we have examples of ideas like servant leadership & organizational
existentialism that emerged out of work of fiction. In light of the emerging discourses on the
workplace and anticipated worldview of the post pandemic world, an uncertain future is
looming over mankind with automation of workplace, artificial intelligence creating hybrid
work structures with humans, involuntary surveillance of workers. Study has conducted a
systematic literature review of seminal dystopian literature to draw key thoughts that are
discussed for the future of the workplace. A thematic analysis has been conducted manually by
researchers to extract key themes related to future of work in these novels. Study has also
looked into the structures of the jobs discussed in seminal dystopian works on the basis of class
conflicts or orchestrated designs due to subliminal thoughts of the society. Study has also
archived various themes that literature reflected regarding future of work.
Keywords: Dystopia, Future of work, Existentialism, Organizational behavior, Job design
1. Introduction:
Earlier human beings considered time as a cyclical entity, as they were observing whether to
measure the changes in time. It was assumed that reality is cyclical and a new year will come
with return of summers or winters. However, with the invention of modern time measuring
machines, human beings realized that time is linear. A new day drags the world into a new
reality (Sloan, 2006). Thus now we are not trying to recreate the past rather we are building the
future. Greek philosopher Heraclitus summed it well that “No man ever steps in same water
twice” highlighting the constant flux, changes and dynamism of this universe (Vamvacas,
2009). Workplace is also changing considerably due to emerging technologies. Technology
and Artificial Intelligence has brought a new dawn to the working environment. Morgan (2014)
highlighted five major trends that are shaping the future of work i.e. new behaviors, technology,
the millennial workforce, mobility and globalization. Morgan elaborated that a new work
behavior is emerging due to internet and social media, this is further clubbed with big data and
cloud computing. Further he also explained the change in attitude of millennials who are
holding the offices and they are powered by mobility, in which you can work with flex hours.
Lastly, globalization is diminishing boundaries that were existing between corporations,
entities and people. Technology and artificial intelligence are referred as “new electricity” as
new form of society, behavior of individuals and new work structures are taking shape.
Different authors had been prophesizing about the future of work, Mernane and Levy (2012)
discussed the old question that we will lose our jobs due to technology? They create a difference
between routine and non-routine tasks, people with routine task should worry about finding
their place in future workplace. Goldin & Katz (2020) considered education as the key, if our
curriculums are updated then there will always be avenues where humans can find their unique
competence. But there is always a dark side reflected of robotics, artificial intelligence or of
digital technology. Such perceptions have not only been built by the electronic media and
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
Hollywood movies but critical thinkers are also skeptic about it. Alarming news emerge quite
often now about absurd behavior of artificial intelligence. But on the other side we have been
interacting with machines for quite a time now, cars, coffee machines, elevators, desktop
computers had been replacing workers and bringing ease to our life. Mazis (2008) explored the
same in beginning of 21st century, boundaries are diminishing between human, animal and
machines. For Mazis, humans and animals are already co-existing, only machines have to make
their place. From cochlear implants to digital assistants, various aspect of machines and
artificial intelligence are already living with us.
There is a need to explore the downside/dark side of technology and digitization specifically at
the workplace. Though technology and digitization is inevitable, these advances are increasing
the level of monitoring (Holland, Cooper & Hecker, 2015), thus it seems that size of prison is
increasing and tracking employees is getting easier. With increasing use of communication
technologies, employees still perceive that trust deficit is increasing (Holland & Bardoel,
2016). Wheal (2022) highlighted the need of exploring the modern dynamics of work floor by
quoting biologist E.O.Wilson “we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and god-
like technology, but no one was offering advice on how to make sense of it all”. Sudden and
immediate presence of meta verse and other breakthrough technologies is giving no time to
examine the impact all these technologies will make on human-self. Thus when we discuss the
future of work, there is always a side demanding careful scrutiny of possibilities that can
emerge for mankind. However, scope of current study is to archive various thoughts shared by
fiction writers regarding future of work for mankind in their seminal works.
This study, firstly, explore seminal novels of dystopian literature with reference to future of
work. Secondly, extract key themes related to future of workplace as predicted by dystopian
authors. Study will see beyond the empirical data and will investigate the phenomenon through
seminal works of fiction. Study will see beyond the iron curtain of technology which is reaping
immediate fruits, yet a deeper inquiry will open up psychological or existential threats that are
predicted in dystopian literature. Study will also leave some answers for co-existence for man
and machine and will identify issues that can jeopardize the process of humanization of beings.
Lastly, this will also support human resource managers and organizational behavior
practitioners to design jobs that allow the human essence to transcend at the workplace.
2. Literature Review
Townsend (2017) shed light on areas like technology driven isolation, carbon foot prints
required to keep the technology running and environmental concerns. Historically, Marx
argued that whenever a new type of economy replaced the earlier one, the rearrangement
favored the social class who would control the technology. Further Marx highlighted that this
will cause alienation at the workplace, resultantly workers will be estranged from humanity
(Healy, 2020). While technology was bringing productivity and efficiency at workplace, yet
workplace was becoming stranger for humans, growth was only for matter and not the
consciousness that was interacting. Similarly, current study aims to look into the future
workplace, workplace decorated with Artificial intelligence, automation and other modern
technologies and how various authors predict the downside of technological hype. As said by
Warren Bennis “The Factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The
man will be there to feed the dog and the dog will be there to keep the man away from touching
the machines”(Reese, 2018). Technology driven isolation is one side, other is excessive
monitoring of employees (Hoffman et al., 2020), Smids et al. (2019) identified five major areas
where automation and robotics at workplace will bring opportunities and negative
consequences. Broader areas of meaningful work identified by researchers include pursuing a
purpose, social relationships, exercising skills and self-development, self-esteem and
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
recognition and autonomy. Along with benefits there are numerous caveats which researchers
highlighted regarding the alienation of workers and existential crisis that can doom the humans
at workplace.
But existence of technology and automation in workplace is already visible, if we look at the
figure 1, a clear incline is visible in presence of industrial robots.
Figure 1. Robot Density in China, EU and US1
Thus the dystopian image which was reflected by various writers and authors has started getting
visible, robots are crawling into workplace, industries, and homes. Study by Acemoglu &
Restrepo (2017) calculated the impact of robots on job market of US, decline in employment
to population ratio was witnessed, similar effect was seen on wage rate. In few countries
spillover effect balanced the impact of robots in industry/workplace (Dauth et al., 2017). This
is just an early data of robots that are in preliminary stages of their evolution, however fourth
industrial revolution or workplace of future will be totally different from the current world.
Reese (2020) mentioned robots and AI as the fourth age for homo-sapiens, considering
language and fire as the first age, agriculture as the second age and wheels as the third age of
homo-sapiens. Though Reese also agree that automation and AI come as a threat for homo-
sapiens, as all other earlier inventions were not evolving to be conscious or automated or had
never developed a language. Thus greed for efficiency and effectivity, we might not lose the
world of Keats and Milton.
3. Sample for Systematic Literature Review
Current study has conducted systematic literature review of seminal dystopian work to chalk
out themes that are discussed by eminent authors regarding the future workplace. Out of
numerous dystopian novels, following three novels have been shortlisted as frequently
researchers had been using work of Huxley, Orwell & Zamyatin (Horan, 2007; Mahida, 2011;
11
Source: Data from International Labor Organization (2017), IFR (2016).
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
Tuzzeo, 2008;). Congruent with the objective of current study, following seminal dystopian
work of literature has been preferred for systemic literature review.
Table 1. Seminal dystopian work of literature
Title of work Author Language Translation Year of publication
We Yevgeny Zamyatin Russian English 1924
Brave New World Adlous Huxley English - 1932
1984 George Orwell English - 1949
Historically there are other dystopian literary novels also, however not considered for
systematic literary review of current study because those novels don’t offer an insight regarding
future of workplace with reference to technology and surveillance which is one key objective
of the study.
3.1 Rationale of Thematic Analysis
Themes have been extracted out of the novels manually by the researchers, keeping in view the
objective of current study. Themes related to future, technology and digitization are extracted
and how they impact the lives of workers. Word frequency technique is not used as in novels
diversified words can be used to elaborate a single phenomenon. Moreover, novels use
subliminal language to unearth the underlying critical themes of society. Thus, usual frequency
tables may not be suitable technique for extracting insightful themes from work of fiction.
4. Analysis
The tables mentioned below summarize a brief summary of the protagonist, his industry of
work, and job type:
Table 2. Profiles of Protagonist
Title of work Job title Other features of Job
1984 Winston Smith the protagonist His major task is to redraw the
works in the Record truth by rewiring it in official
department. He is deputed in the documents due to the constant
Ministry of truth. flux in the policies of the ruling
regime/party.
Brave New World Bernard Marx the protagonist of
the fiction novel works as a
sleep-learning specialist. He is
deputed at the conditioning
center
We D-503 the protagonist works as His major work is to make the
a spacecraft engineer and he is launch of Integral successful in
deputed at a project titled order to conquer the
Integral extraterrestrial world
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
Table 3. Future of working dystopian work titled We
Work Theme Coded for
Emergence of Collectivism Personal liberty of workers, individuals and
office bearers is not important and it can be
traded off with the collective well-being of
the state (community, workplace)
Alienation Workers and office bearers are found to be
occupied with tasks for the greater good of
We the unknown state and that makes them
alienated from themselves
Technology as Control Tool Individuals use technologies and other
modern fiction tools, yet all that is used to
control, monitor, and observe the lives of
individuals. Even privacy is monitored.
People’s identity as numbers Human beings’ unique identity of names is
replaced with numbers. The qualitative
utility of names and meanings associated
with them has been disassociated from
human beings.
Excessive Rationality Ideas like mathematical bliss are
encouraged for workers, cherishing
uncertainty and aesthetical thoughts are
prohibited
Table 4. Initial themes regarding the future of work in Brave New World
Work Theme Coded for
Technology as Control Tool Technology is used to pre-program the
people so they can become marginally
thinking and effective tool for the system of
work. Technology designs and chooses the
fate prior to their existence
Structured happiness Happiness isn’t any earned task rather it
Brave New World appears in the lives of workers through
certain measures. However, this happiness
lacks amusement that arrives due to
surprises. It’s learned happiness that came in
the lives of workers and people due to the
comfort of stability
No unique identity Each person is programmed to appear in the
system as a worker, that is manufactured
prior to their birth. Individuality doesn’t
exist rather beings exist who hardly think of
themselves as a free thinker.
Bodily humans Workers are preprogrammed and are
available to the system only as bodily
humans, essence of human being is not
available.
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Table 5. Initial themes regarding future of work in 1984:
Work Theme Coded for
Emergence of Collectivism Individuality is eroded in cost of collective
fascist thoughts, workers have no individual
entity having freewill and choices and they
happily embrace to the collective good of
state
Distorting Reality Literature is changed every now and then to
1984 recreate history, workers’ idea of reality is
kept distorted.
Technology as Control Tool Even thinking freely is considered as a
crime for workers and people, thought
police keeps an eye on the free thinkers.
Workers have to come in front of screens at
their home after a regular interval to testify
the fact that they are faithful to ruling entity
Language to control Ideas like double think and newspeak are
thoughts used so people be the part of bandwagon and
they may use language which suppresses
their free thought
People’s identity as numbers Apart from names, workers also have
numbers as their call IDs. Freedom of
protagonist starts the day he removes
number from his name
Following initial themes are extracted from the text, the following table reflects the initial
themes that have been shortlisted or dropped for focused thematic analysis.
Table 6. Initial Themes
Initial Themes Selected Initial Themes Focused Themes
Emergence of Collectivism A A. Quest for Individuality
Alienation D
Technology as Control Tool C
People’s identity as numbers B
Excessive Rationality Dropped B. Numbers Representing
Humans
Technology as Control Tool C
Structured happiness
No unique identity A
Bodily humans Dropped C. Technology as Control
Tool
Emergence of Collectivism A
Distorting Reality Dropped
Technology as Control Tool C D. Alienation
Language to control thoughts Dropped
People’s identity as numbers B
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
4.2 Focused Themes for Analysis
Themes emerging with frequency in all the dystopian works are further shortlisted for analysis
of future of work as theorized and thought by dystopian writers.
A. Quest for individuality:
Individuality of human beings at the modern workplace is thought to be compromised. In WE,
workers are considered to be cogs in a giant machine and their individual aspirations, goals,
and passions of life have no place, they have traded that for collective benefit. Title of the work
WE highlight that here is no space for I, there is no space for individual dreams and aspirations.
Arts is considered to be a special type of epilepsy that provide leisure to mankind and they lose
their attention from mathematically scheduled life, hence it is not allowed in that society and
if such passion appears in human being then they are properly treated. Even music is composed
on logic, and rationality and not to give any uncertain thoughts to listeners which might provoke
a question for knowing himself/herself.
Another work that was used for current study also reflected that individuality of the modern
worker will be conquered. In the work 1984, a person having ownlife (word from the
Newspeak, language that was arranged to control human behaviors) was considered to be
abnormal and might be considered as a threat to the society. Even for leisure people gather in
community centers and in hours of solitude after regular break their loyalty with the system
(workplace) was checked. They had to stand in front of a telescreen and pledge the loyalty to
the system (workplace).
Brave new world sheds light on this phenomenon from another angle, advancement of genetic
science was used to control this deviating behavior before time, prior to birth gene engineers
will choose the place of the human being in the society. People are divided into classes so they
can grow up and fit into the system.
B. Numbers representing humans:
Numbers have an outstanding utility since the time of Pythagoras, our modern computer system
has been on phenomenal rise due to the use of binary digit. However, they also have limitation,
they eliminate the qualitative individual capacities from any phenomenon. Words, names and
nouns are one of important invention of human beings through which we express our inner
beings, our beings are authenticated by expression of language. Protagonist of WE and 1984
had a number as their name. That again crushes the unique individuality which is associated
with historical names. 1984 had a language called as newspeak that eliminated words that might
spread individuality, hope, creativity and free thinking in human beings. In the work WE,
protagonist has a name D-503, which sufficiently takes away all the qualitative attributes of an
individual. In 1984, the protagonist has a name 6079 Smith W, again number has been
forcefully added in the entity of human beings. In Brave New World, humans are divided into
various classes, again having symbolic sign names of their general category. Society is
classified into alpha, alpha minus, beta etc., hence roles of human beings in larger machinery
of the society are pre-destined and any qualitative attribute that may allow them individuality
is eliminated even before the birth.
C. Technology as a control tool:
Technology has been shaped to be used as a control tool, more specifically technology has been
used effectively to perform surveillance of the individuals in the society. In Orwell’s 1984,
technology is used to regulate fear, create discipline and to engrave on the minds of the people
that they are always under observation, thus the statement “Big Brother is Watching You”
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
became a famous tag line of surveillance culture. People in 1984 have to give their allegiance
to the ruling class via technological tool (telescreens) that they are present and fully obedient
to the ideology of the ruling class. Technology is used to structure the society, induce fear,
forced obedience and a fake sense of freedom and utility. Similar case is observed in brave new
world, where bio-technology is used to design and cluster the human beings so no extra force
is required later to monitor them. Thus bio-technology is used to design human beings and to
classify their roles in the society and how they can perform the services for ruling elite. A
soulless conformity is designed via technology in brave new world. Lastly, in the work WE,
the overall design of society is of a great machine and technological advancement is used to
repress the identity and freedom of human beings. Even happiness is defined in mathematical
language, data science is used to assign people with numbers, routinize each activity and even
to assign them friends and lovers. Thus technology has been used to bring people to excessive
routinized and rationalized society, resulting them to be bodily humans only.
D. Alienation:
The population of these three dystopian novels is alienated from themselves. Partial awareness
is found in the protagonist of the study. The rest of the population has no personal meaning in
their life. People take pride in collectivism or abiding by any ruler with whom they didn’t
interact directly. Historically social alienation is considered jeopardy for human beings.
However, the authors discussed that in the case of modernity, a case opposite to social
alienation is encountering human beings that is a lose a greater meaning in their personal lives.
Thus people are estranged from the machine of the society and they have lost any higher
meaning, goal, art or literature that can provide the meaning. In all these works, the protagonist
struggled to find books of independent thinkers, equipment to write stuff, etc.
5. Discussion
Individuals at the workplace are banded together and have been merged into a larger whole,
Sion (2014) elaborated that individual has to compromise their greater good for the collective
good of the whole. Thus resulting in a lost individuality for the collective good. Just with the
presence of machines in the workplace. Kanungo (1982) discussed how repetitive tasks cause
alienation and dehumanize the intrinsic needs of human beings. Kanungo further cited the work
of Blauner (1964) who observed that industries having less freedom due to machines at the
workplace suffer more from alienation. As we step into the workplace where we co-exist with
machines, further two forms of alienation are looming over human beings; acting like a
machine and knowing that you cannot act better than a machine. Earlier alienation was the
absence of greater meaning while working in a machine-like system, however now the
challenge has doubled when you actually try to be like a machine and lose your spirit (Berlet,
2006). Other scholars believe that due to digital machines (artificial intelligence) five major
categories of alienation is taking over human beings at the workplace i.e. powerlessness,
meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation and self-estrangement (Healy, 2020).
Moreover, human beings working or living in social settings are becoming a bulk of numbers
that are associated to them at various levels. Thus, human beings are not understood as
qualitative beings having goals and dreams, rather myriad of numbers represent human beings
at office, bank and other places. Technology is isolating the essence of entities in the society.
Even at workplace numerous numbers replace the qualitative essence of human being and are
creating an isolation of real self from the self that is accepted and registered at the workplace.
Surveillance capitalism is a new term that is creating ripples in the world of research, where
people’s information is the resource, which they share subliminally on social media platforms.
Thus making it easier and effective to monitor them and in much clandestine manner.
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
Surveillance capitalism not only refer to easy monitoring but how same information is used to
control the behavior of people at social media (Zuboff, 2019). This might be relevant for social
media but dynamics at workplace are similar. People are followed, traced and getting amn
escape from work is getting difficult. With digital technologies, employees are engaged in
official tasks all the time and shunning the work after office hours is getting impossible.
Discourses of organizational well being have started including terms like Zoom fatigue to
reflect how employees are continuously available for official tasks and liberty of free hours
and leisure are getting compromised (Wall, Cooper & Brough, 2021). Thus, technology is
making possible “work from anywhere” but it is also increasing the case “work always and
anytime” (Hill & Hill, 2021). Technologies are introduced to enhance efficiency and
effectiveness but they become a modern shackle for the workers. While they generate data for
the Artificial intelligence, they are also easily tracked to the minute level (Harmon, 2017).
5.1 Implications
Study has implications for organizational behavior practitioners and human resource managers
for designing the job which vanguards the essence of human kind. Job design may allow
mindfulness and provides right fit of technology and nature. Importantly, managers and leaders
at workplace may call employees with their names and add qualitative value to their existence.
Employees’ presentation to be preserved with their names and nouns. Detox hours or tech-less
hours implemented so humans can interact in a noble-savage environment. As Covid pandemic
is getting over, techniques to normalize physical interaction to be implemented at workplace.
More authentic and organic interactions to be encouraged to detox the excessive use of
technology. Lastly, human resource department in modern times may preserve the individual
identity of workers in the collective existence of the organization.
5.2 Caveat for future workplace:
Man is the measure of all things, after Darwin’s inclusion in social theory, most of the works
of quantum physics are making space in social theory and observer’s effect is reminding the
words of Protagoras that man is still the measure of all things. While chasing efficiency,
productivity and effectivity we may not surrender the prime being of this universe. Thus,
demanding for an urgent balance, limiting the use of technology, robotics and artificial
intelligence. The global crisis of depression as reported by the Economist in 2015 already rang
the bells that human beings as a collective species are decaying with the catalyst of technology.
Qualitative essence of human beings at workplace to be preserved rather than assigning
numbers and quantifying the values of human beings.
5.3 Limitations & Future Research Direction:
Study has been conducted on secondary text, out of which one of the text (We) used in the
study was translated from Russian language, hence lost in translation for one particular text is
the major limitation of this study. Moreover, other dystopian texts have been written in similar
genre, still current study was limited to three seminal (We, Brave new world, 1984) novels. In
future, researchers can club up other dystopian text in this sample size for study. Future
researchers can also conduct a study by doing qualitative interviews to observe the perception
of human resource managers and workers regarding the results of this study.
Journal of Workplace Behavior (JOWB) Volume 3(1): 2022
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