This article examines the manufacture of organizational comics, a particular type of visual artifacts, which aims at shaping employees’ representation about the future of their work. This article is based on a case study in the aviation industry which is currently shaken by the generalization of robots and automation. We investigate how organizational comics, presenting a bright side of the Future of Work were made. We show the power dynamics and choices which led to representing the future of work by showing some dimensions and obscuring other of automation. We identify six interrelated processes contributing to the manufacture of organizational comics: negotiation, clarification, prioritization, storytelling, popularization, interpretability. Overall, we offer three contributions: we highlight the necessity of investigating not only organizational comics' content but also how they are manufactured in order to develop a more refined view of the power relations at play in future making. Secondly, by identifying six intertwined processes in the creation of organizational comics, we show how we could intervene to shape more inclusive corporate imaginaries. Finally, we contribute to critical perspectives on Industry 4.0 by showing how its main proponents are downplaying and obscuring its negative transformations.
