TY  - JOUR
T1  - Human Dignity, Recognition, and Autonomy in Contemporary Work Systems
A1  - Thabo Nkosi
A1  - Lerato Molefe
A1  - Sipho Dlamini
A1  - Ayanda Mokoena
A1  - Kabelo Ndlovu
JF  - Journal of Applied Organizational Systems and Behavior
JO  - J Appl Organ Syst Behav
SN  - 3108-852X
Y1  - 2026
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
DO  - 10.51847/WqZRueqALe
SP  - 133
EP  - 142
N2  - Contemporary work systems increasingly combine digital monitoring, algorithmic coordination, flexible employment, intensified performance demands, and decentralized responsibility. These arrangements can create efficiencies and discretion while also reshaping whether workers are treated as persons with worth, agency, social standing, and legitimate claims over the conditions of their work. This integrative review examines human dignity through four connected domains: meaning and worthwhile contribution, autonomy and non-domination, recognition and respect, and organizational responsibility. The review combines heterogeneous empirical, qualitative, longitudinal, theoretical, methodological, and governance evidence without treating unlike designs as directly commensurable. The synthesis suggests that dignity is not reducible to job satisfaction, meaningfulness, formal autonomy, or recognition programmes. Rather, dignifying work depends on how work systems organize contribution, discretion, authority, social valuation, and responsibility. The literature also contains tensions: autonomy may coexist with algorithmic control; self-management may redistribute responsibility without eliminating hierarchy; recognition may become instrumental; and ostensibly beneficial practices may impose new burdens. The review therefore proposes a dignity-centered work-system framework that treats these domains as analytically distinct but interacting conditions. The framework is an original integrative synthesis, not a validated causal model. Its relationships remain conditional on employment security, inequality, occupational status, technology, organizational position, and institutional context. Future research should test temporal, multilevel, and intervention pathways while preserving distinctions between employee experience, organizational practice, and structural conditions.
UR  - https://apsshs.com/article/human-dignity-recognition-and-autonomy-in-contemporary-work-systems-kmdqjqnlpmd8tiy
ER  -