Abstract
Service automation in knowledge-intensive operations raises fundamental questions about work design, skill transformation, and organisational resilience. While operations management research has examined automation extensively in manufacturing and well-resourced service contexts, the mechanisms operating in resource-constrained environments remain relatively undertheorised. This study develops and empirically examines a three-pillar framework proposing that infrastructure capacity, professional culture, and work transformation jointly shape automation outcomes when organisations face reliability constraints. Through longitudinal analysis of administrative process automation at a Pakistani university over five years, drawing on 16 semi-structured interviews and archival records, we trace how these dimensions interacted through what we characterise as threshold and sequential interdependence. Infrastructure challenges appear to have extended initial adoption by roughly 18 months and inhibited trust formation. Hierarchical professional identities and accountability norms influenced which individuals embraced or resisted automation. Work characteristics shaped whether automation led to upskilling, through coordination work, or deskilling, through residual formatting tasks, within the same organisation using the same technology. The findings point to possible corrections to technology acceptance models that assume infrastructure availability, to digital divide research that may overlook professional identity dynamics, and to work transformation studies that treat outcomes as technologically determined. For operations management practice, the framework offers diagnostic structure for assessing automation readiness, managing divergent skill outcomes, and designing work to support rather than undermine organisational capabilities in resource-constrained environments.