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7 years ago

How digitisation is changing future workplace

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There is no argument that 'Information Technology' (IT) plays a growing role in our daily activities. According to the Internet World Statistics report of 2015, more than three billion people had access to internet all over the world in 2015, representing just less than half of the total world's population. In  today's world, people are intensely relying on IT-based digital platform for acquiring knowledge and information, establishing communicative coordination, business development, receiving healthcare services and also for entertainment purposes on a large scale. A recent research has found that after getting up from bed, at least 25 per cent of teenagers get to their android devices or smartphones in USA. Now-a-days, in our daily lives the usage of technology has been increasing at a geometrical rate, following a facet of massive changes in the way we live our lives. Moreover, extensive prevalence of IT-enabled knowledge-based platform has already started dominating the way people approach work. Due to this evolutionary change in today's work mechanism, it is high time to re-scrutinise the effect and consequences of changing workforce. 

 

 

Business leaders in the Western world agree that business organisations are ultimately destined to be automated and digitised. Recently, US-based management consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. has recommended that top level executives critically re-evaluate the overall business-welfare related perspective of their organisations so as to be sustainable in the era of digital age. It does intrinsically stipulate that workforces will need to be digitally capable in the new context.

 

 

To get an idea of the future prospect of digital workplace, it is essential to know about digital workforce. 'Digital natives' are those individuals who even don't remember the first time they had accessed the internet. Individuals who belong to this category have been fundamentally perceived to be heavy users of modern technology. On the other hand, 'Digital immigrants' are those people who have owned technology as it has become readily accessible. Both 'Digital natives' and 'Digital immigrants' are to be referred to as 'Digital workforce'. Digital workforce know well about the potential capitalisation of digital age. The digital workforce has been able to leverage IT knowledge at its work by means of inheriting essential technology-based competencies. Among these competency attributes, acquiring digital fluency is considerably referred to as the supreme desired outcome of using technology. The term 'Digital fluency' refers to the state of IT skills where an individual's skill goes beyond knowing the typical usage of technology. Digitally fluent person is well equipped with greater level of artistry that saliently enables him/her to be manipulative in terms of leveraging tech information in order to obtain cutting edge strategic goals. Hence, not only digital natives but also digital immigrants will have the digital fluency attribute in them so that they would be able to harness technology to dominate big data, creatively manipulate information and transform new products and services and also their ways of functioning. 

 

 

 

When digital workforce is evidently transporting new technological expertise to workplaces, in-depth extensiveness of technology in worker's lives is likely to have effects on identity development and interpersonal communication in a way that would have immense implications for welfare maximisation of organisations. Research on technology management reveals that escalating usage of information technology is likely to have complex impacts on the expression of identity. The omnipresence of technology in our daily lives might restraint the opportunities to grow an intense level of self-awareness and to act authentically in office or in workplace. Technology has also impacted our daily lives' standard of interaction. It has been observed that significant presence of technology has re-transformed the way we interact with each other, reshaping our expectation from relationship. Undoubtedly, texting has been the most prevalent form of today's communication. Messaging and video call have already started to replace face-to-face conversation to some extent in contemporary business. In the near future, 'Facebook' or 'Linkedin' ID can be tantamount to identification proof. Because, our digitised world is changing so rapidly, our future may be vulnerably unpredictable.

 

 

Technology usage has impacted competency level, interaction platform and interpersonal expectations of the digitised workforce, along with influencing the traditional structure of carrying out work through both radical and incremental technological development. In most cases, these developments have positive consequential payoff. Employees can easily access to required information in the blink of an eye, connect with foreign colleagues and clients, and also deliver and dispatch products and goods in an increasing capacity at lower costs. For example, knowledge and information sharing platforms have been a convenient method of solving any problem in the digitised business organisational culture, especially for those who have geographically scattered offices around the world. Furthermore, email, internet and all forms of social media have become indispensable parts of doing work, while providing painless accessibility to friends, family, e-market places and non-work domains as well. The most evident implication of the technological development is that employees can remain connected with their office work, even whenever they are at home, following unconditional or conditional flexibility in work nature.

 

 

The digital workforce is accustomed to tech-knowledge based instructions,  allowing competitive advantage and supporting employees to gather required level of IT skills. Digital workforce may have to share the same platform with older co-workers who may not be digitally proficient. So the firm has to reconcile and balance any conflict or strife that may arise when these two groups of people work together. Digital workforce may undertake to educating older officials and employees who are less comfortable with tech knowledge, so that the latter could be tech-savvy in the future. 

 

 

The technological capability and mastery of the digital workforce and its way of leveraging technology in the workplace will unquestionably continue to grow and develop day by day, yielding business firms and executives with an array of probabilities for enhancing organisational efficiencies and effectiveness. The integration of digital workforce's competency and artificial intelligence (AI) can be a vital factor for radical and profound institutional change. Extensive research is needed to scrutinise the impacts of the increasing usage of IT by the digitised workforce.

 

 

The writer is an MBA student, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand

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