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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2000

John C. Edwards

In this paper I begin to answer the neglected question of “When to downsize?” Specifically, is downsizing and the associated reskilling of workforces an appropriate response to…

Abstract

In this paper I begin to answer the neglected question of “When to downsize?” Specifically, is downsizing and the associated reskilling of workforces an appropriate response to technological discontinuity? Based on past organizational literature written about technological discontinuity, downsizing, and reskilling, I develop a theoretical framework that indicates when downsizing following a technological discontinuity will increase organizational effectiveness. Propositions are developed based on this framework. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for managers and future researchers.

Details

The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1055-3185

Article
Publication date: 29 September 2021

Arthur Yan Huang, Tyler Fisher, Huiling Ding and Zhishan Guo

This paper aims to examine transferable skills and viable career transition pathways for hospitality and tourism workers. Future career prospects are discussed, along with the…

1323

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine transferable skills and viable career transition pathways for hospitality and tourism workers. Future career prospects are discussed, along with the importance of reskilling for low-wage hospitality workers.

Design/methodology/approach

A network analysis is conducted to model skill relationships between the hospitality industry and other industries such as health-care and information technology. Multiple data are used in the analysis, including data from the US Department of Labor Occupational Information Network (O*NET), wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and job computerization data (Frey and Osborne, 2017).

Findings

Although hospitality workers have lower than average skills scores when compared to workers from other career clusters included in the analysis, they possess essential soft skills that are valuable in other industries. Therefore, improving hospitality workers’ existing soft skills may help them enhance their cross-sector mobility, which may allow them to obtain jobs with a lower likelihood of computerization.

Practical implications

The findings shed light on workforce development theories and practice in the hospitality industry by quantitatively analyzing cross-sector skill correlations. Sharpening transferable soft skills will be essential to enhancing hospitality workers’ career development opportunities.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that specifically examines the skill taxonomy for the hospitality industry and identifies its connection with other in-demand career clusters.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 33 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 March 2023

Ranjan Chaudhuri, Sheshadri Chatterjee, Demetris Vrontis, Antonino Galati and Evangelia Siachou

In the post-COVID-19 era, the hospitality industry is rapidly moving towards digitalization, which requires employees to upgrade their knowledge and skills. Some employees resist…

Abstract

Purpose

In the post-COVID-19 era, the hospitality industry is rapidly moving towards digitalization, which requires employees to upgrade their knowledge and skills. Some employees resist those changes and refuse to upgrade their knowledge, skills and ways of doing things. Therefore, there is a need to understand this unexplored area and so this study examines employee intentions to embrace digital technology from the perspective of upgrading their skills and knowledge. The study investigates the moderating role of the employees' resistance to change motive (RCM) on their intention to embrace digital technology, especially in the post-COVID-19 pandemic scenario.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is conducted using dynamic capability view (DCV) theory and status quo bias (SQB) theory. Drawing on the existing literature in this area, a theoretical model is developed, which is validated using the structural equation modelling technique to analyse data from hospitality industry employees.

Findings

The results indicate that employees' dynamic capability plays a significant role in employees' upgrading their skill and knowledge capabilities, and this significantly improves employee intention to embrace digital technology. It also finds that the employee RCM plays a significant role in the relationship between upgrading skill capability and their knowledge capability to relation to embracing digital technology.

Originality/value

The findings could be used by hospitality managers to better understand employee intentions with regard to adopting digital technology, challenges faced and the way forward.

Details

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4217

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 December 2022

Thomas H. Davenport and Nitin Mittal

The authors’ research identified seven best practices of leading companies with a particularly aggressive “All-in-on-AI” approach to Artificial Intelligence technology. 10;

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Abstract

Purpose

The authors’ research identified seven best practices of leading companies with a particularly aggressive “All-in-on-AI” approach to Artificial Intelligence technology. 10;

Design/Methodology/Approach

The article examines how successful companies are reskilling and upskilling their employees to help develop, interpret and improve AI systems.

Findings

To date, AI technologies are most commonly applied in making business processes more efficient, improving decisions and enhancing existing products and services, but “All-in-on-AI” companies eventually develop use cases across a wide variety of functions and processes, decisions and products or services.

Practical/Implications

While many have predicted that AI would replace humans, AI-powered companies see the primary goal as discovering how to get the best out of both by redesigning jobs, reskilling workers and becoming more efficient and effective in the process.

Originality Value

Companies seeking to get significant returns on their investment in AI should take note of the practices of leading firms.

Details

Strategy & Leadership, vol. 51 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1087-8572

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Anjana Nath, Sumita Rai, Jyotsna Bhatnagar and Cary L. Cooper

This study aims to explore how coping strategies (CS) mediate the relationship between job insecurity (JI) and subjective well-being (SWB) leading to presenteeism among…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore how coping strategies (CS) mediate the relationship between job insecurity (JI) and subjective well-being (SWB) leading to presenteeism among millennials. This study has been tested based on the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 2001) and the transactional theory of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). In India, employees in the information technology (IT) and business process management sectors have been facing increased job insecurity over the last couple of years. The advent of technology has increased job insecurity among millennials, specifically in the IT sector. The Indian IT and information technology–enabled service (ITES) sector witnessed mass retrenchments by companies in 2016–2017. Instead of reskilling, the companies decided to lay off their employees. During the pandemic, the IT and ITES industries witnessed a massive culture shift in terms of technology and work engagement. Postpandemic, the recession is looming large on these industries. In 2022, tech layoffs have witnessed 135,000 employees impacted globally and many may lose their job in the coming year. This study chose Indian millennials because they form a large part of the Indian workforce, especially in the IT and ITES sector.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, cross-sectional design is used where different individuals are part of the study at the same point in time. A sequential mixed method of research is adopted for this study, owing to the kind of research questions and the requirement to include critical realism. A qualitative study was carried out post the quantitative study, to corroborate the results from the quantitative study. Quantitative methodologies address questions about causality, generalizability or magnitude of outcome, whereas qualitative research methodologies explore why or how a phenomenon occurs, describe the nature of an individual’s experience during the study relevant to the context and/or develop a theory (Fetters et al., 2013). Because the study is about the millennial workforce in IT and the ITES sectors, the sample population comprised employees in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) of Delhi in northern India. Out of a total of 374 ITES companies listed in the national association of software and service companies (2018), 103 are based out of Delhi/NCR; hence, companies from Delhi/NCR were chosen for the study. The other reason for opting for companies based in Delhi/NCR was that many millennials from second- and third-tier cities also are employed in these companies bringing in varied cultural perspectives. This study included 588 employees working in ITES organizations based in the National Capital Region of India. Mediation analysis for statistical verification was carried out with regression-based analysis in SPSS macro process (version 4).

Findings

The impact of job insecurity on the positive and negative affects of the subjective well-being of millennials was found to be substantial. Coping strategies moderated the relationship and it was seen that both engaged and disengaged strategies of coping had an impact on the positive affect of subjective well-being but did not have any impact on the negative affect of subjective well-being. The positive affect of subjective well-being was negatively related to presenteeism, and the negative affect of subjective well-being was positively related to presenteeism.

Research limitations/implications

This study is carried out only in the ITES industry and on millennials. With the advent of technology, other industries are going through challenges concerning layoffs even though the severity of the same might be less. In times to come, for strategizing employee engagement, it is necessary to understand how the workforce copes with various work-related stress factors. The positive affects and negative affects of well-being and responses have been studied from an employee perspective only. Further research should be conducted to explore responses from both employers and employees to establish presenteeism and the antecedents of presenteeism in conjunction with positive and negative affects of well-being. There is further scope to study the impact of job insecurity on adaptive presenteeism in older generations and various industries given the current job scenario and talent-reskilling issues.

Practical implications

This study brings forth original insights into the impact of constant job threats on millennials employed in the IT and/or IT service sectors. The key findings contribute to literature knowledge and help managers recognize the unfavorable consequences of continuous job threats on the well-being of employees. There is an immediate need for managers to recognize the problem and devise various policies and communication strategies to enable millennial employees to cope with the constant changes in the organization, owing to various technological, political and environmental factors. Organizations should be mindful of this impact, which can subsequently have serious consequences on the productivity of the employees, resulting in decreased overall performance and health of the organization.

Originality/value

This study of job insecurity as a job stressor, triggering coping strategies in Indian millennials working in the ITES and IT industry, presents original insights. This study explores and presents how the impact of job insecurity may increase presenteeism as a result of coping. This study brings value to practitioners and this study may help organizations improve the overall well-being of their employees, thus improving productivity. On the contrary, it also opens opportunities for exploring the impact of job insecurity as a challenge stressor.

Article
Publication date: 30 November 2020

Rexwhite Tega Enakrire

The purpose of this study is to investigate data literacy (DL) for teaching and learning in higher education institution, as data has become a crucial component in the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate data literacy (DL) for teaching and learning in higher education institution, as data has become a crucial component in the accomplishment of task and decision-making in diverse sector, specifically higher education institutions (HEIs), where students’ records, results and research activities are managed in data form.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted the interpretive content/document analysis harvested from database of Web of Science in this study. The use of content/document analysis became essential to establish appropriate empirical evidence that relates to this study. This was to support the argument of detailed systematic examination, which the author establishes in the study. The interpretive content/document analysis was based on systematic literature review on specific objectives.

Findings

Findings indicates that DL is crucial in HEIs. Different types of data collection methods, such as rating scale, reporting, questionnaire, interview, observation, checklist, project, registration, assignment and performance test, were noticed in specific institutional cases. Subsequent conceptual and pedagogical foundations in processing data were obtain through continuous reskilling to acquire adequate knowledge and skills of DL. Social media and institutional repository are now used to digitise data. Different types of skills and abilities were used to search, analyse, adopt and share data in HEIs. This study recommends strategies of the use of different databases for data digitisation and creation of awareness on DL education in HEIs in Africa, specifically Nigeria.

Originality/value

This study is insightful with the understanding of DL in HEIs. The significance in this era of digital literacy become essential, as the need to have the knowledge and application of the use of data is important because of how it serves scholar in decision-making and planning in organisational productivity. The rationale towards this study on DL was on the basis that the world is a global village and without data, no organisation or HEIs could function adequately. Several types of data collected, such as rating scale, reporting, questionnaire, interview, observation, checklist, project, registration, assignment and performance test, have transformed institutional cases, for better and quality management operations. The subsequent conceptual and pedagogical foundations in processing data resulted in continuous reskilling, to sharpen learn and unlearn enterprise.

Details

Library Hi Tech News, vol. 38 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0741-9058

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 August 2021

Dennis Schlegel and Patrick Kraus

Digital transformation of organizations has major implications for required skills and competencies of the workforce, both as a prerequisite for implementation, and, as a…

3008

Abstract

Purpose

Digital transformation of organizations has major implications for required skills and competencies of the workforce, both as a prerequisite for implementation, and, as a consequence of the transformation. The purpose of this study is to analyze required skills and competencies for digital transformation using the context of robotic process automation (RPA) as an example.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on an explorative, thematic coding analysis of 119 job advertisements related to RPA. The data was collected from major online job platforms, qualitatively coded and subsequently analyzed quantitatively.

Findings

The research highlights the general importance of specific skills and competencies for digital transformation and shows a gap between available skills and required skills. Moreover, it is concluded that reskilling the existing workforce might be difficult. Many emerging positions can be found in the consulting sector, which raises questions about the permanent vs temporary nature of the requirements, as well as the difficulty of acquiring the required knowledge.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to knowledge by providing new empirical findings and a novel perspective to the ongoing discussion of digital skills, employment effects and reskilling demands of the existing workforce owing to recent technological developments and automation in the overall context of digital transformation.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 September 2022

Andrew Ebekozien, Clinton Aigbavboa and John Aliu

Research reveals that the built environment graduates are not matching the needs of the 21st century construction industry. Evidence shows that the built environment academics…

1988

Abstract

Purpose

Research reveals that the built environment graduates are not matching the needs of the 21st century construction industry. Evidence shows that the built environment academics (BEA) struggle to reskill and upskill to meet the industry's demand. Studies about Nigeria's BEA's perceived barriers in meeting the 21st-century industry demands are scarce. Thus, the paper investigated the perceived barriers and measures to improve BEA in Nigeria's 21st-century world of teaching. The outcome intends to enhance teaching practices and increase employability in the built environment disciplines.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were sourced from elite virtual interviews across Nigeria. The participants were well informed about Nigeria's built environment education and the possible barriers hindering 21st-century teaching from improving employable graduates in the built environment professionals (BEP). The researchers adopted a thematic analysis for the collected data and supplemented the data with secondary sources.

Findings

The study shows that BEA needs to improve BEA's teaching mechanism. Improving BEA will enable the built environment graduates to meet the minimum standards expected by the 21st-century industry. Findings categorised the perceived 22 barriers facing BEA into internal stakeholders-related barriers, external stakeholders-related barriers, and common barriers. Also, findings proffered practicable measures to improve BEA in the workplace via improved industry collaboration and technological advancement.

Research limitations/implications

The research is restricted to the perceived barriers and measures to improve BEA in 21st-century teaching in Nigeria via a qualitative research design. Future research should validate the results and test the paper's proposed framework.

Practical implications

The paper confirms that the BEA requires stakeholder collaboration and technological advancement measures to improve teaching in the 21st century, leading to enhanced employability graduates. The paper would stir major stakeholders, especially BEA, and advance the quality of employable graduates in the Nigerian built environment professions.

Originality/value

The thematic network and proposed framework could be employed to stimulate Nigeria's BEA for better service delivery. This intends to create an enabling environment that will enhance stakeholders' collaboration and technological advancement for the BEA to produce better employable graduates in the 21st century.

Details

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, vol. 41 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-4708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2021

Vernika Agarwal, Kaliyan Mathiyazhagan, Snigdha Malhotra and Tarik Saikouk

Sustainable human resource management highlights the importance of the eighth sustainable development goal, “decent work and economic growth”. Thus, the purpose of this study is…

3310

Abstract

Purpose

Sustainable human resource management highlights the importance of the eighth sustainable development goal, “decent work and economic growth”. Thus, the purpose of this study is to align human resource practices and policies with Industry 4.0 is imperative.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors aimed to identify key challenges of sustainable human resource implementation in view of Industry 4.0 and to analyse these identified challenges by prioritising them for effective Industry 4.0 implementation in an emerging economy such as India. A mixed-methods approach was utilised to prioritise identified challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts, academicians and industry mangers. Transcribed interviews were run in NVivo to emerge into broad themes/challenges, which were prioritised using fuzzy best–worst methodology.

Findings

The performance appraisal challenge holds maximum importance, followed by learning and development. This finding signifies the need for instilling job security and continuous learning opportunities for employees amidst all disruption caused by Industry 4.0.

Practical implications

This work enhances the link between sustainability, disruptive technologies and Industry 4.0 to transform economic outlooks, leading to improvement under economic aspects through the adoption of sustainable human resource practices into workplaces and society.

Originality/value

Sustainable human resource management has mostly focused on employee welfare. However, the major challenges of disruption caused by Industry 4.0 have not been addressed in the literature. The upskilling and reskilling requirements due to disruptions by Industry 4.0 range from recruitment to performance appraisal and every facet that relates to an employee's cycle in a company. Hence, there is a need to identify critical challenges for optimum adaptation to upcoming industry demands.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 43 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 August 2013

Megan M. Bresnahan and Andrew M. Johnson

This study aims to develop a systematic approach for assessing local training needs in order to reskill liaison librarians for new roles in scholarly communication and research…

2259

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to develop a systematic approach for assessing local training needs in order to reskill liaison librarians for new roles in scholarly communication and research data management.

Design/methodology/approach

This study followed a training needs assessment approach to develop a survey instrument that was administered electronically to liaison librarians. Survey data were analysed to create an overall prioritization score used to rank local training topics in terms of need. Additional data will inform the design, including formats, of a training agenda to meet these needs.

Findings

Survey results indicated that training for research data topics should be prioritized and addressed using hands‐on methods that would allow liaison librarians to develop tangible skills directly applicable to individual outreach activities.

Research limitations/implications

Training priorities often involve factors beyond the scope of this training needs assessment methodology. This methodology also presupposes a list of potential training topics. All training efforts resulting from this study will be assessed in order to determine the effectiveness of the initial interventions and inform the next steps in this iterative training agenda.

Practical implications

Involving potential trainees in the prioritization and development of a training agenda provides valuable information and may lead to increased receptivity to training.

Originality/value

This study provides a model for academic libraries to use to assess training needs in order to reskill current staff to adapt to a rapidly changing research and scholarly communication landscape.

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