The individual 'working-to-rules': reducing determinism in Taylor-made expert systems

Abstract Holden (1989) suggested that Taylorist scientific management principles, based upon machine-like models of man, may influence the development and application of expert systems. While Holden's work is a major contribution to the debate on the effects of technology on employment, it is argued that a similar deterministic and mechanistic image of the users of expert systems is implicit in his paper. In addition, this commentary also addresses some of the related issues concerning autonomous expert systems.