The Tedious Work Paradox: When Digitalization Undermines Creativity

As part of their research, Long Lingo and Bruns observed workers in the music industry, where the goal was to produce a hit song, and in labs, where the goal was to find health care solutions. They also conducted formal interviews and even tried their hands at the jobs they were observing. Long Lingo co-wrote and co-produced a song. Bruns shadowed scientists in their lab.

“In Nashville, it was clear that music production was evolving as digital technology was coming into play,” Long Lingo says. “The technologies created opportunities, enabled new ways of doing things, and made some tasks easier. The technologies also created a lot of new work that people had not anticipated.”

Long Lingo and Bruns discovered that across the arts and sciences, digital technologies amplified tedious work—repetitive, detail-oriented tasks requiring significant focus and expertise. While a certain level of tedious work was needed to achieve novel outcomes, they found, too much could hijack creativity. 

Tedious work identified by the researchers fell into four categories: fishing, administrating, polishing, and compiling. Fishing involved generating volumes of data. Administrating required workers to painstakingly track data and document processes. Polishing involved fixing errors and making improvements. Compiling focused on selecting, combining, and recombining data. 

A sound engineer told Long Lingo that while compiling recorded vocals, he could spend weeks listening to songs one word at a time in an effort to make judgments about subtle differences in pitch or timing. A biologist who filmed cell movements with a tracking program to capture motion data explained to Bruns that validating the computer analyses of the cell movements could take three straight days of polishing.

With so much time and energy spent on tedious tasks, the researchers found, workers were at risk of wasting time, feeling disengaged, and experiencing information overload. To cope, leaders and workers would strategically “curb” the use of technology to meet deadlines and reduce tedious work. They also automated tasks, when possible, and practiced “sustaining” rituals such as focusing for blocks of time and taking breaks to reset. When overwhelmed by details, leaders and workers “zoomed out” to consider an entire song or modeling project and regain perspective.

Long Lingo says that although she had researched information overload and digitalization previously, she was surprised at the “cognitive, emotional, and physical exhaustion” that workers in creative fields were experiencing as digital technologies transformed their work. 

“We tend to think of creativity as exhilarating and positive, but the real impact of digital technologies on creative work was a wakeup call for me,” Long Lingo says. “Tedious work is vital to creativity, so it cannot be eliminated. However, tedious work poses a management challenge to business leaders who are charged with supporting workers’ creativity and guiding innovation as new technologies continue to transform workplaces.”