Trust, Control and Autonomy: A Dialectic Relationship - Trust Theory: A Socio-Cognitive and Computational Model - page 220

Table 7.6 How autonomy changes while adjusting delegation and help

Meta autonomy Autonomy of realization

Reduction of Help Increased Equal

Extension of Help Increased Increased or Equal

Critical Help Increased Increased

Reduction of Delegation Equal Reduced of Equal

Modification of Delegation Equal Increased or Equal

Critical Delegation Equal Increased or Equal or Reduced

Openess of Delegation Equal Increased

Closing of Delegation Equal Reduced

Source: Reproduced by Permission of C 2001 IEEE.

while rows 4-8 show the adjustments by the trustor (trustor's adjustments) on its own previous
delegation. In particular, we can see that:

When there is a trustee's adjustment there is always a change of its meta-autonomy (the
trustee decides to change the trustor's delegation); while not always there is a change
in its realization autonomy. For example, in the reduction of help, realization autonomy
remains the same because the trustee realizes just a part of the delegated task (but this part
was also included in the previously delegated task). In other words, the trustee does not
change autonomy as for how to realize . Conversely in the extension of help , there are two

possibilities: i) the trustee has more realization autonomy when the adopted plan includes
some (not delegated) part which is not completely specified (thus the delegee has more
discretion in its realization); ii) the trustee has the same realization autonomy if the adopted
plan does not need more discretion than the delegated one. Finally, in critical help , given its
possibility to choose new actions, there is always more realization autonomy.
When there is a trustor's adjustment the trustee's meta-autonomy never changes (in fact,
the trustor itself takes the initiative to modify the delegation). As for the trustee's realization
autonomy we can say that: in the reduction of delegation case, Ag 2 's autonomy of execution
(if its discretionary power is reduced with the new delegation) is reduced or it remains
unchanged (suppose that the old task was completely specified in all details). In the extension
of delegation case, either the autonomy of realization increases (if the new task presupposes
some action - not included in the old one - with a certain degree of openness) or it remains
unchanged (if this new task was completely specified in all details). In the critical delegation
case, the autonomy of realization of the trustee increases or not depending respectively on
whether the new actions are more or less open than the old ones. In the openness of delegation
case, the autonomy of realization of the trustee always increases (openness is in fact a factor
that increases the discretion of the trustee). Vice versa, in the case of closing of delegation ,
the trustee's autonomy of realization is always reduced.

τ

7.2.8 Adjusting Autonomy by Modyfing Control
As already observed a very important dimension of autonomy is the control activity of the
adopted/delegated task. Given that control is composed of feedback plus intervention, adjusting
it means having to adjust (at least one of) its components.