Executive Summary
With the demands of different companies, the skills required for the future workforce have changed and now require specialized training. In recent years, more and more organizations have been dealing with the topic of digitization in the workplace. Nonetheless, the content of existing training programs focuses primarily on technology demonstrations rather than encouraging participants to design and apply their own innovative ideas (Harteis, Goller and Gerholz, 2021). Thus, there are many challenges associated with learning digitalization in the workplace.
It is increasingly critical for production systems to perform at high levels of efficiency in a worldwide, linked, and dynamic market environment. In recent years, digitalization has been viewed as the most promising catalyst for improvements in performance in the industrial business. Organizational systems are growing smarter, accompanied by increased resource efficiency, high flexibility to changing surroundings, and breakthroughs in communication and information technologies. On both the micro and macro levels, organizational operations’ organizational and technological complexity is increasing (Hulla et al., 2019). Furthermore, short cycled and rapid task changes, as well as extremely variable employee assignments, are becoming increasingly important.
The ability to identify acceptable domains for digitalization and apply it to obtain all available benefits, demonstrate new technology, and efficiently use communication and information technologies are some of the key problems of digitalization. As a result, there is a strong desire to take advantage of the hands-on learning environment by enabling training participants to assess and identify the digitalization potential, select appropriate solutions for implementing digital technologies, and finally experience their effects (Harteis, 2019). This paper aims to summarize current research on future workforce skills and present challenges related to learning workplace digitization programs.
Research Questions, Definitions, Assumptions/Limitations
It is vital to focus on workforce digitalization in order to fully realize the potential of the future organization. Digitalization of the workplace is defined as a process of virtualizing the traditional in-person organizational environment, where productivity and collaboration elements are performed using different digital applications and technology (Billett, 2021). Learning digitalization provides hands-on training that is near to organizational reality, allowing for the safe testing of process changes and modifications in a work environment (Hulla et al., 2019). The training facilities have shown to be an effective learning environment for a variety of organizational issues, including efficiency and management.
The questions to be investigated during the research need to address how the specific learning programs contribute to workplace digitalization. The main question that the research aims to answer is “What are the challenges associated with learning digitalization at the workplace?” One of the assumptions regarding the findings of the research is that the main challenge of learning digitalization is associated with the lack of efficient training and learning programs for professionals in order for them to effectively acquire digitalization processes and technologies. Possible limitations of the research are time limitations since it might require more time to assess the efficiency of digitalization learning programs and the effectiveness of their implementation strategies in the workplace in a long-term context.
Another challenge does not imply that the instruments used by employees are impenetrable, but rather how work is organized and why machines and colleagues behave in specific ways. According to Harteis, Goller and Caruso (2020), a major difficulty for employees is that the implemented CPSs are extremely likely to remain at least somewhat opaque for them. As a result, there is a risk that work may become increasingly opaque (Harteis, Goller and Caruso, 2020). The concerns raised above show that digitalization has created new challenges that go much beyond past automation methods. Workers are cognitively impacted by new work tasks and practices, motivated by the need to adapt, and emotionally impacted if work is guided by robots. Thus, the different nature of tasks at different workplaces is another limitation to accessing the challenges of digitalization.
Literature Review
There are at least three barriers to lifelong learning or lifelong learning. Billett (2021) identifies several challenges associated with learning digitalization in the workplace. The first challenge is to acquire conceptual and procedural knowledge that is difficult to access. The second challenge is to overcome threats to workers’ self-esteem or subjectivity. The third challenge is that most of this learning must be done in and through practice. As a result, technology-based practices that have disrupted existing traditional working practices can play an important role in providing access to conceptual and procedural information.
Workplace learning research looks into how people build professional expertise, skills, and capacities, as well as professional identity and agency that allows them to take on the duties and problems that come with their jobs. According to Harteis, Goller and Caruso (2020), the present difficulty with learning digitalization in the workplace is that existing research may overlook essential learning and instruction approaches, particularly when concentrating on individual and specific cognitive influences on workplace learning. Learning in the context of work is thought to be particularly important for workers’ acquisition of essential skills and competencies, aside from their initial training. This can also be described by Illeris (2018), who claims that processes and structures at work are underpinned by constant change. Such changes can occur as a result of technical advancements, altered client expectations, market requirements, and so on. As a result, workers are constantly confronted with new scenarios that test their present mental models of the workplace, including techniques for dealing with work-related duties and obstacles.
Proposed Methodology
In order to identify challenges associated with learning digitalization at the workplace, participants were selected among practitioners of all careers. The participants who have started digitalization learning in the organization will be surveyed. The survey will include questions that allow identifying several important aspects. First, it will address workers’ opinions on the efficiency of the learning programs. Participants will be asked to share their reflections on how their knowledge and skills regarding digital processes and technologies have been improved. Next, participants will be asked to choose possible challenges they have faced during digitalization learning. Participants will be divided according to age groups; thus, the correlation between the type and nature of challenges and the age group of the professional will be found during the research result analysis.
Furthermore, the second method of evaluating the efficiency of the digitalization learning programs will be used. The method is based on the idea of assessing the digitalization knowledge and skills level of employees before the start of the learning program and after completing the learning program. Participants will be asked to do to test twice, after which the initial and former results will be compared. The results will indicate the progress that professionals have made by completing the digitalization learning program.
Timeline
- Week 1 – Define the final version of the thesis topic, find relevant resources, read and analyze literature, and provide a hypothesis.
- Week 2 – Prepare survey questions and tests for accessing the digitalization knowledge and skills of employees.
- Week 3 – Invite participants and determine their exact number; collect and group information about research participants.
- Week 4 – Conduct surveys and tests.
- Week 5 – Collect results and provide an analysis of the findings.
Reference List
Billett, S. (2021) ‘Mediating work-life learning and the digitalization of work’, British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(4), pp. 1580-1593.
Harteis, C. (2019) ‘Digitalisation of Work’, Work-based Learning as a Pathway to Competence-based Education, p. 85.
Harteis, C., Goller, M. and Gerholz, K.H. (2021) ‘Digitalization of work: challenges for workplace learning’, The SAGE Handbook of Learning and Work, p. 329.
Harteis, C., Goller, M., and Caruso, C. (2020) ‘Conceptual change in the face of digitalization: challenges for workplaces and workplace learning’, Frontiers in Education, 5, p. 1. Frontiers.
Hulla, M., Hammer, M., Karre, H. and Ramsauer, C. (2019) ‘A case study based digitalization training for learning factories’, Procedia Manufacturing, 31, pp. 169-174.
Illeris, K. (2018) A comprehensive understanding of human learning. Contemporary Theories of Learning, ed K. Illeris. London: Routledge, pp. 1–14.