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This paper conducts empirical research to assess the new skillsets employees require in order to remain competitive in the age of automation.

Research is conducted through focus groups leveraging semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected via convenience sampling from UK-based consulting agencies operating in the public and private sectors.

The findings suggest that organizations are looking to upskill employees in 5 key skill blocks: Humanistic, Process engineering, Automation technologies, Self-leadership and Data driven. The findings also suggest that employee orientation towards these skill blocks will be critical for positive work opportunities in future.

This paper builds on the author’s previous work to produce a conceptual skills framework which can be used by organizations as a blueprint for upskilling their employees in a period of unprecedented technological advancement.

This viewpoint paper envisions the key competencies that employees should cultivate to thrive amidst the age of automation.

This paper synthesises recent academic and contextual papers on the topic of workplace automation, alongside the author’s practical knowledge as a Global Program Manager for Robotic Process Automation projects in an S&P 500 company.

Four skill building blocks are created which will help employees stay relevant in the age of automation: process engineering, automation technology, self-leadership and humanistic.

In this new era of automation, the skills of today will no longer be sufficient for employees to remain competitive in future. This paper contributes to literature by envisioning and presenting four skill blocks that could serve as a blueprint for human resources officers and executives to create the future learning plans and hiring strategies of their organisations, as they grow along the automation maturity curve.

This paper aims to investigate whether patterns of human resource management (HRM) are converging or diverging across the globe.

The topic is analysed through a review of existing literature in the space, introducing the drivers for MNCs to seek the global integration of HRM practices, as well as the strategies MNCs may use for practice transfer. The debates of convergence and divergence in relation to HRM practices are then discussed in further detail whilst focusing on two key areas impacting these debates: the cultural factors and the institutional, political and economic factors.

This paper suggests that patterns of HRM practices are not converging to one set of best practices approach, and there are numerous other factors which influence convergence, such as local business systems, legal practices and cultural differences. This paper suggests that there is a mix of some HRM practices converging due to MNC influence, whereas others continue to diverge.

A holistic discussion is held on the theory of convergence and divergence, which will benefit HR professionals in assessing the state of convergence in their own organisation and common pitfalls to be wary of.

This paper aims to conduct practical analysis inside an organisation operating within the UK to assess what factors may be decreasing motivation for information technology project managers collaborating with geographically dispersed team members from different national cultures.

The topic is analysed through the author’s knowledge and engagement with the organisation, and by connecting related literature to identify cause and effect.

Methods for improving project manager motivation are suggested through staff training, workshops, goal-setting theory and assignments abroad. This paper also makes a recommendation for project manager job redesign through the utilisation of the job characteristics model.

This paper highlights key considerations for HR professionals and Senior Management in terms of work design, coaching and policy implementation, and provides a redesigned job blueprint that will be beneficial for other organisations using project managers.

To support senior leaders and HR practitioners with building the internal leadership capabilities to oversee automation in a virtual teams environment.

This point of view paper presents the topic of workplace automation in a virtual teams environment through contextual practitioner literature sources.

Six new capabilities are suggested for the modern leader.

This paper introduces a scarcely researched area which is of enormous relevance in the post-covid age of remote working and digital transformation agendas, alongside presenting recommendations for HR practitioners and senior leaders to build internal leadership capabilities.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic organisations are adapting to a new environment of global talent shortages, economic uncertainty and geo-political turmoil. As an outcome, the organisational strategies of digital transformation and remote working have been accelerated in the race to boost innovation, competitivity and attract staff. This has led to the rise of two new organisational dynamics: the increase of virtual teams (VTs) and focus on widespread work automation. However, despite the rise of these two related phenomena, literature does not connect them as one research area, and there is a gap in the understanding of the new employee wellbeing needs they form and how to respond to them. This paper aims to bridge this gap through a systematic literature across these areas.

This paper conducts a systematic literature review across the areas of leadership, VTs and automation over the past three years.

In this review, a number of newly arising employee wellbeing needs are identified such as fear of job displacement, a lack of self-efficacy and social cohesion, poor relationships with leaders and more. In addition, this paper recommends three fundamental research gaps to be addressed by future studies: 1. How to build and cultivate the new leadership skills needed to support VTs and workplace automation? 2. How to design work in a way that caters for employee wellbeing needs when operating in VTs or hybrid teams and working on or with workplace automation? 3. How to design work in a way that builds and emphasises the new employee skillsets to support augmentation and solves for the new employee wellbeing needs experienced by workplace automation?

This paper provides a novel contribution to literature by centralising current schools of thought across the cross-disciplinary themes and synthesising literature to recommend new wellbeing and leadership skills for organisations to focus on, alongside producing a new research agenda for scholars to focus.

This article examines the selection criteria used by employers from the perspective of a sample of registered unemployed. It uses the same criteria set to get the sample to assess their own re‐employment prospects. It concludes that although training and retraining programmes may be a necessary condition to enhance the re‐employment prospects of the unemployed, they do not constitute a sufficient condition.

Provides an introduction to, and general explanation of, qualitative analysis. Explains why this approach is best suited to the examination of management competences. The competency framework is designed to allow organizations to self‐audit their executive development needs. Shows how individual organizations might identify their own standards and establish their relevant strengths and weaknesses. Highlights the principles of survey design and gives an indication of the possible explanatory variables and analytical perspectives a researcher might use. Concludes by summarizing the possible scenarios of development an organization may face having conducted such an exercise.

Examines the role of “sheltered employment” within the macro‐economic labour market. Assesses the extent to which sheltered employment is an end in itself forming a “road block” for people with disabilities. Goes on to suggest ways in which the system of sheltered employment might be modified to form a set of agencies with the key objective of facilitating the successful “transition” of people with disabilities from “sheltered” into “open” employment.

In this chapter, I offer some insights into what I learned over the course of my inquiry into the living and learning that took place on the edges of community. I highlight the inconclusive nature of narrative inquiry as well as demonstrate my recognition that in any narrative inquiry we exit as we entered, in medias res, in the middle of things. Even though the inquiry ends, we continue to compose stories and to share those stories. Our understanding is only ever partial in the same way the stories we compose are incomplete, unfinished. In seeking a conclusion that is not a conclusion, then, I contend that experiences are complex and the stories we compose about those experiences are also complex. The insights and wonderings that emerged from the analysis of my own experiences as well as the experiences of my participants shaped themselves into the overlapping areas of identity-making, curriculum making, and community. In particular, I explored the stories people composed from the edges of community; those spaces conventionally described by the dominant narrative as marginalized. The participants discussed in this chapter demonstrated how profoundly they were each impacted by their positioning as marginalized. At the same time, their stories had a strong thread of self-definition that was insubordinate to that positioning. In varied ways, the participants refused to be defined by others or as other. Their experiences suggested that those spaces conventionally thought of as peripheral, the edges, were actually the defining features of communities.