Search results

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on issues regarding the influence of skill-polarized workplace on jobs, human capital and organization from human resource development’s (HRD’s) perspective, this research identified 30 displaceable skills from endangered jobs and examined 423 adult employees’ awareness and level of technological redundancy based on the displaceable kills.

By using survey methodology, the findings discovered four displaceable skill sets – repeated physical motion and performance, information process and analysis, repeated physical control of equipment, and individual affective performance – existing in 23 occupations with varying degrees.

Evidently, about half of the respondents were not aware of their level of technological redundancy and the current changes caused by automation and advancing technology in the job market. Proper HRD interventions are needed to assist employees to adjust the job changes and coexist with machines and robots in the technologically dynamic workplace. Specific approaches and strategies to help employees to become robot-proof were provided and discussed.

This research offers important insights for HRD professionals to understand the phenomena of the current skill-polarized workplace and to potentially address the related issues of talent shortage, endangered jobs, and technological unemployment.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is on the rise. To help advance research in this area, the authors synthesise the academic research and develop research propositions on the antecedents and consequences of AI adoption and application in the workplace to guide future research. The authors also present AI research in the socio-technical system context to provide a springboard for new research to fill the knowledge gap of the adoption and application of AI in the workplace.

This paper summarises the existing literature and builds a theoretically grounded conceptual framework on the socio-technical system theory that captures the essence of the impact of AI in the workplace.

The antecedents of AI adoption and application include personnel subsystem, technical subsystem, organisational structure subsystem and environmental factors. The consequences of AI adoption and application include individual, organisational and employment-related outcomes.

A research agenda is provided to identify and discuss future research that comprises not only insightful theoretical contributions but also practical implications. A greater understanding of AI adoption from socio-technical system perspective will enable managers and practitioners to develop effective AI adoption strategies, enhance employees' work experience and achieve competitive advantage for organisations.

Drawing on the socio-technical system theory, the proposed conceptual framework provides a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents and consequences of AI adoption and application in the work environment. The authors discuss the main contributions to theory and practice, along with potential future research directions of AI in the workplace related to three key themes at the individual, organisational and employment level.

This paper aims to examine how input from the digital restructuring of the workplace and productivity affects the risk of job loss and unemployment.

Relying on the concepts of technological unemployment and the productivity paradox as well as the theory of skills-biased technological change, the analysis incorporated micro-level individual determinants of job loss, macro-level economic determinants of input and the contribution from traditional (machinery and equipment) vs innovative (ICT) factors of production. The model has been also controlled for “traditional” indicators of “outsiderness” in the labour market. The Quality of Work Life Survey, which is a broad-based national interview survey produced by Statistics Finland, for 2018, the latest year available (N = 4,110) has been used in the analysis. Binomial logistic regression has been applied in order to estimate the effects of individual- and macro-level factors on the risk of job loss.

The results support arguments for the divergence between effects from labour- vs total-factor productivity on the risks of job loss, as well as the divergence between effects for temporary (layoff) vs permanent job loss (dismissal or unemployment). While the contribution from “traditional” factors of production to labour productivity potentially decreases the risk of permanent job loss, input from “innovative” factors of production on total-factor productivity potentially causes adverse effects (e.g. growing risks of permanent job loss).

The paper contributes to the theoretical discussion about technological unemployment and productivity by means of including two different concepts into a single econometric model, thus enabling examination of the research problem in an innovative way.

This paper aims to provide a sobering and unique view of technological unemployment and job changes by identifying endangered jobs and skills, as well as the essential up-skills critical to employees’ performance, which cannot be replaced by technology.

A systematic literature review, used because it is replicable, transparent, and scientific, was implemented to examine the current and future technological influences on employment, job outlook, work structure, and human resource development (HRD).

The study concludes that HRD professionals should promptly reexamine their social responsibility relative to the technological influence on workers by focusing developmental efforts on employees’ human skills while assisting workers’ transition to a skill-polarized workplace. HRD professionals should play a major role in facilitating employees’ coexistence with robots in the workplace.

While recognizing the valuable contributions of previous researchers with similar concerns, this comprehensive review provides an amalgamated and updated view, which reveals the escalating and combined challenges of a skill-polarized workplace, a tendency of technological unemployment for those positioned in middle-skill jobs, and an increased demand for employees with a higher level of human skills.

Water is the source of life and civilization. However, the world is facing water crises – imminent and worse crises that demand immediate and concerted actions. Even today, around the world, nearly 1.1 billion people are living without access to safe drinking water (Shaw & Thaitakoo, 2010). This has adverse impacts on their health and livelihoods. Approximately 2.6 billion people live without access to basic sanitation. This is a threat to their dignity as well as health. Water pollution is getting worse in many places across the world. Moreover, water-related disasters are widespread. These are serious natural disasters that cause catastrophic damage to human lives. Water problems are fundamental causes of endemic diseases, hunger, gender inequality, lack of education and jobs, endangered ecosystems, and other socioeconomic and environmental problems across the world. Most of the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without solving water problems (Hashimoto, 2006).

To determine the human and environmental values that need to be protected at every ethical decision‐making point, given that resources are finite and that the needs of future generations have no upper limit.

A search was made of the Humanities and Area Studies Databases and Articles, the Philosophers' Index, RenDa Fuyin Baokan Ziliao (People's University reprints series), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index on ISI Web of Knowledge, the Arts and Humanities Data Service, the British Philosophy Database, Dissertation Abstracts International, the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (REP Online), ZETOC (Electronic Table of Contents) through MIMAS, and Academic Search Elite. Relevant arts and humanities journals were hand‐searched, and reference lists examined for further relevant reports.

Although decision making in environmental policy relies on logic, empirical fact and intuition, it does not make sense to have a “universal master plan” covering living persons, the unborn, and the non‐human world when designing an environmental policy. Environmental policy options are meaningful in specific contexts; since each context has its own underpinnings and specific preferences on the basis of its own peculiar socio‐cultural and economic circumstances, the necessity of narrative ethics in decision making becomes evident.

As this review demonstrates, the initial concern in environmental matters may centre on the preservation of human health, clean health, clean air and water, endangered species, jobs and the needs of future generations. Decisions may then be reached through cost benefit analysis, which tends to be whether or not the chosen course of action produces greater balance, the greatest happiness to the greatest number. But there are difficulties in determining what constitutes “cost” or “benefit”.

It became evident from this study that, to stand the test of time, context‐sensitive environmental paradigms should be capable of enriching themselves with ideas from other approaches to decision making such that, although problems may have a global dimension, the solutions to them must be context‐sensitive.

This paper shows that employee resistance against innovations can be explained by the sunk costs nature of human capital investments induced by innovations. Therefore, internal resistance against innovations is more likely if it is uncertain that the employees can reap the benefits of these investments. This is, for example, the case if employment in the firm is bound to decrease or if further innovations are planned. These theoretical predictions are confirmed empirically in a multi‐variate analysis. A representative German firm data set for the service sector is used for the estimation.

Drawing upon the conservation of resource (COR) theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of knowledge hiding in the relationship between job insecurity and two dimensions of thriving at work, i.e. learning and vitality. The study further aims to investigate the moderating role of benevolent leadership in the aforementioned mediating relationship by applying the moderated mediation framework.

The sample for the study consisted of employees working in service sector in India. The hypotheses were tested with two wave survey data collected from 365 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Indian Government was lifting phase wise restrictions. Data was analyzed using mediation and moderated mediation analyses on PROCESS v 3.0 macro.

Results showed that knowledge hiding mediated the relationship between job insecurity and both dimensions of thriving at work. Further, benevolent leadership was seen to moderate the mediated relationship providing support for the moderated mediation framework.

The results highlight the significance of providing benevolent leadership training to the managers to help them cope with the anxiety arising out of job insecurity. Further, employees need to be cautioned regarding the deleterious effects of knowledge hiding, which can impede their own learning and vitality.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the mediating role of knowledge hiding in the relationship between job insecurity and thriving. Further, the role played by benevolent leadership in mitigating the harmful effects of job insecurity especially during COVID-19 pandemic is a unique contribution of the study.

Organizational downsizing, right sizing, layoffs, and restructuring that attempt to reduce labour cost and increase competitiveness, have generated considerable feelings of job insecurity among today's employees. Conversely, the rapidity of change in the Middle Eastern region, coupled with the unpredictability of economic conditions, the inevitable need to survive and the ever‐lasting craving for organizational success merge to aggravate the adverse effects of job insecurity. The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between job insecurity and powerlessness, management trust, peer trust and job satisfaction within Lebanon.

Employees working within medium‐sized organizations in Lebanon were surveyed to measure their perceptions of job insecurity, job satisfaction, powerlessness, and interpersonal trust. Statistical analyses were performed using Pearson correlation matrix and linear regression tests.

The study identified significant positive relationship between job insecurity and powerlessness, and negative relationships between job insecurity and management trust and job satisfaction. No significant relationship was found between job insecurity and peer trust.

The study adds to the existing job insecurity literature by empirically testing the relationship between job insecurity and powerlessness, peer trust, management trust and job satisfaction within Lebanese organizations. The researchers hope that this study will assist managers in understanding the importance of earning their subordinates' trust and its implications on job insecurity which could also negatively affect job satisfaction. Also, the issue of powerlessness should be seriously considered by management since it triggers the feeling of job insecurity.

Western organizational behavior literature has given the topic of job insecurity significant attention. However, no scholarly research has yet examined the topic of job insecurity within the Middle East. This paper sheds light on important results regarding job insecurity and its consequences. Powerlessness predicts and aggravates job insecurity, and is affected by the nature of the job; trust in management has a negative effect on job insecurity, while peer trust has no influence. Also, job satisfaction is influenced by the perceptions of job insecurity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the industry's expectations on the key employability skills of fresh graduates in the communication and media industry. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has raised the question of whether the university should produce work-ready graduates with employability skills. Driven by the theory of human capital, society expects higher education to produce graduates with skills that are useful in their workplace.

The data were gathered primarily through a quantitative survey, which was later extended to include qualitative interviews. Quantitatively, questionnaires were completed by 313 employers from the middle and top-level management from the communication and media industry. This study also expands on qualitative data through in-depth interviews with nine respondents who were among key decision-makers of recruiting graduates to garner their insights on required employability skills.

The findings revealed the following employability skills required by the industry in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: communication, ICT or digital, leadership, interpersonal, and personal qualities skills.

These findings are beneficial to education providers as well as media and communication industries in preparing students and developing their skills to adapt to the changes in the workplace.

The authors provide an empirical understanding of industry expectations towards employability skills in the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the communication and media industry within the Malaysian context.