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This chapter frames the digital age transformation journey for sustainability from the lenses of transformation skills and competencies required for future work. It provides a synopsis of the digital transformation considering digital technologies, connecting digital transformation to future work and reflections on the new digital age to sustainability issues. In detail, this chapter comprehensively reviews digital technologies transformation skills, including digital skills and integrated skills for the digital economy linked to integrated skills. This chapter takes into consideration the possible effects from a competency point of view from the domains on issues like: global independence, trust, a shift in skills and ways of work, commitment to justice, improving the know-how, financial inclusion, data and data privacy that are critical imperatives for sustainability. Developing a digital economy requires integrated sustainable development competencies; this chapter considers combined skills for digital transformation in triple connecting points of human skills, business skills and digital building blocks skills to argue for sustainability. Because attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires input from different quotas globally, sustainable competencies are needed to ensure individuals work cohesively through new-age digital technologies. This chapter further highlights emerging competencies such as critical thinking, appreciative equity, open communication and acting on collective well-being as imperatives transforming digital disruptions. The final section of this chapter puts into perspective the implication of required digital technologies for the future of work and its significance on the need to reskill and retool. It concludes by reflecting on opportunities and challenges for crucial consideration towards creating a sustainable digital age.

One of the major issues with reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on work values and dynamics is leadership and management of both material and human resources. We have started this chapter with the challenges of people management in government bodies, corporate outfits, health organisations and educational systems. Relationality and inter-subjectivity have been considered as essential ingredients in preparing for the future.

We have looked at the dimensions of preparedness as mimicking the dimensions of the human being so that there are physical, psychological and spiritual aspects. Physical preparedness directly involves the material resources that make it possible to handle the changes in work hours, technological needs and competence upskilling. Psychological preparedness has been discussed with resilience at the core so that health organisations, businesses and governance target specific aspects of resilience needed for people to thrive. Spiritual preparedness is briefly explained as a continual memory of the capacities of transcendence inherent to the human being so that rapid technological growth never becomes dehumanising. Recommendations are made based on a deeper understanding of these different dimensions in an individual and collective way.

Global virtual teams (GVTs) – composed of members in two or more countries who work together primarily using information and communication technologies – are increasingly prevalent in organizations today. There has been a burgeoning of research on this relatively new organizational unit, spanning various academic disciplines. In this chapter, we review and discuss the major developments in this area of research. Based on our review, we identify areas in need of future research, suggest research directions that have the potential to enhance theory development, and provide practical guidelines on managing and working in GVTs.

The world today is predicated on constant change driven by globalisation, economic restructuring, climate change, conflict crises, and the Covid-19 pandemic. People, businesses, and government are swiftly impacted by job and profit loss, a shift in knowledge, learning poverty, pressures, and adaptability. In addition, the twenty-first-century labour market is increasingly asking for advanced skills as many jobs experience digital transformation in the workplace.

The nature of work and the structure of employment are reinventing. The Covid-19 pandemic has created challenges that require responsive safety nets critical to prevent these hardships. An option of working from home was only for a relatively privileged segment of the labour force and colleagues may never meet personally. A new pattern of work may emerge changing how people worked and live. Such circumstances could be psychologically and financially taxing. Accordingly, businesses and individuals need to navigate this challenging space by developing different skills and resilient attitudes to be relevant in the new world of work.

Resilience is a positive attitude that is built to help people overcome significant challenges to achieve their goals. In the present context of work, resilient attitudes can necessitate proactively growing skills in such areas as adaptability, persistence, problem-solving in addition to foundational literacy. Building resilience will not only benefit the individual but the business also gains continued success.

The field of Organization Development and Change (ODC) is facing the same tensions as those confronting humanity more broadly: how to build a sustainable future. There is an urgent need to preserve the viability of our species by changing our relationship to the natural environment and slowing the ravages of climate change and the degradation of the earth's resources. Simultaneously, technology advances are changing our lives, work, institutions, and culture in unpredictable ways. Social upheaval and geopolitical tensions are exposing deep fissures in values, preferences, and beliefs about what constitutes a just society and how to govern. The development needed for a sustainable future must enable us to operate in ways that are fundamentally different from the status quo – not just increase our effectiveness in the way we currently operate.

ODC will have to recontextualize its methodologies and frameworks that currently focus primarily on individual organizations to deal with the complexity and urgency of the challenges humanity is facing. In this Reflection, we consider some of the tensions and key questions that ODC faces: What does, and might, sustainable development mean in a globally intertwined world where divisions at both the macro and micro levels reflect conflicting interests, tensions, and fundamentally different aspirations for the future? How do ODC methodologies and frameworks need to change to help develop sustainable ecosystem level transformation cutting across hierarchies, institutions, geographies, and cultures? How does ODC need to design itself to operate differently with different outcomes? We suggest some possible next steps forward in addressing these tensions.

The world needs to pave a path towards sustainable development to solve global poverty and inequality, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind. The transformative changes brought about by the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), encompassed by the new world of work (NWOW), pose a significant threat to the displacement of jobs, especially in developing contexts, where many jobs are susceptible to automation. This results in a tension between the stakeholder and shareholder perspectives, which results in the phenomenon referred to in this study as the People Versus Profit Paradox. The purpose of this study is to determine business leaders’ perceptions of this paradox by generating an in-depth understanding of its nature and potential consequences. This study generated insights through a generic qualitative research design based on 10 semi-structured interviews with business leaders from multiple industries in developing countries. This study’s major contribution is the development of an up-to-date understanding of business leaders’ perceptions of sustainable development with respect to the 4IR and the People Versus Profit Paradox in developing countries. The two main findings of the study reveal that organisational purpose has changed towards a more inclusive stakeholder perspective, and that business leaders’ perceptions reveal a relative state of bias regarding the current impact of the 4IR in developing contexts. This study aims to inspire business leaders in developing contexts to embrace sustainable development and the disruptive changes brought about by the 4IR, to usher in a sustainable future where no one is left behind.