Changing Workplace Skills: Implications, Management, and Suggestions

This report delves into the evolving landscape of workplace skills, driven by technological advancements, outsourcing, and changing employee values. It highlights the increasing prevalence of contingent workers and remote work, forecasting a rise to 40% in organizations. The report examines the impact of these changes on both employees and management, emphasizing the need for upskilling in areas such as analytical and social skills for workers, and the importance of management education to navigate a diverse workforce. It also discusses the challenges of balancing theory and practice in management education and suggests strategies for adapting to the changing nature of work, including fostering adaptability, entrepreneurial skills, and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, the report underscores the significance of management education in facilitating organizational changes and creating a supportive environment for employees. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and adaptation for both employees and management to thrive in the future of work.

Running Head: CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
TOC

2CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
Introduction
In the present generation it is common trend to have contingent workers and in fact it is
expected that the percentage of the remote workers and non-permanent workers in organizations
will increase to 40%. There are continuous technological changes taking place that is bringing
different changes to the nature of work in the organization. It is also having tremendous effect on
the employees and the management. Employees in order to adapt to the changing requirements
need to acquire certain skills such that they did not become obsolete in the future especially with
robots around. Management education is also becoming important in this respect in order to
adapt to these changes. The main aim of the paper is to discuss about the different changes taking
place in the workplace, implications of these changes on the workers and the management of the
organization and provide suggestions for this purpose.
Discussion
Changing nature of work and prediction about any other changes in the workplace
Some of the major changes taking place in the workplace nature is the requirement for
changing technology, outsourcing, changes in the attitude and values of the workers, diversity
and demographics, and globalization because these has an impact on the workers and
management (Young et al. 2015). Due to the continuous changes in the technology there are
many impacts on the work life balance due to blurring of the lines that is there. The main
question in front of the managers today is to get the maximum productivity without making the
employees work for more than they are expected to work and keeping them engaged in the
organization at the same time. Outsourcing is another major change taking place in the
organization since this requires the companies to describe which of its activities are important

3CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
and which can be not so important and therefore it can be done by those people who specialize in
it at a lower cost. This can be challenging to the management because it requires them to
properly understand the nature of work and decide the non-core activities of the company that
can be outsourced. There are changes in the workers values and attitudes- earlier workers usually
stayed associated with only one organization during their lifetimes however there is a change in
their attitudes and behaviours and today it has become very difficult to engage employees in the
organization (Møller et al., 2017). Diversity of the workforce is another major change taking
place in organizations today. Organizations are expanding their activities beyond their national
boundaries and are employing people from divergent background. This may require the
management to improve its education properly such that it can deal with all the employees
equally.
Some other changes that may occur in the organizations in the next 5-10 years is that of
joblessness.
Figure 1:
Impact of
automation on
the jobs
Source: (Documents.worldbank.org 2019)
From the above diagram it can clearly be understood that technology which once gave jobs to
people is now leading to joblessness. Since the number of informal workers is continuously

4CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
increasing in different countries it further leading to various other employment problems.
Figure 2: No. of informal workers employed in different countries
Source: (Documents.worldbank.org 2019 )
Technological changes taking place will not only have an impact on the workers of the
organization but there will be different types of problems for the management of the
organization. Management will have to more responsibilities and roles to fulfil and in order to
properly carry out their responsibilities; they need new skills such as intellectual skills, social
skills and others.
Implications of changing nature of work on the workers and the management
The implication of these changes on the organizational workers and management of the
organization are that there is a need to update one whether it is the employees or the management
in order to adapt to the changes taking place. Some of the major skills up gradation that the
employees or the workers need are that they need to be more analytical, they need to have social
skills and various other skills (Lee, Huang and Ashford 2018). The management on the other

5CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
hand needs proper management education in order to be able to properly deal with the diverse
workforce. In these changing scenarios it has become important to keep the employees engaged
in the organization, for this purpose the organization needs to carry out various engagement
activities. The management should aim at bringing a proper work life balance for its employees.
The management education will involve carrying out different training and development
programs for the managers such that they can effectively carry out the change in the organization
in accordance with the environment (O'Neill 2016). This will require them to change their
attitude, acquire new skills and many other activities.
Problems being faced related to the management issues
One of the major problems related to management education is that there is a gap
between theory and practical activities. There are different theories in management education
that may be asking managers to adopt autonomy in their managerial practise however in real life
situations this style may not be effective. As managers are required to meet a balance between
autocratic and democratic styles. Managers need to be prepared for the changes taking place and
in case they themselves are not prepared for it they will not be able to help employees in this
scenario.
Suggestions in order to survive the changing nature of work and the changing
requirements thereof
Some of the major skills that are required to be acquired by the employees are-
adaptability and agility such that the employees can adapt to the changes, entrepreneur skills that
will ensure that people are creative and innovative, the ability to analyse information properly

6CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
such as to make use of information appropriately and effectively, they need to have cognitive
ability such that they can process the information effectively and they need to be motivated
people, the need to have social skills and knowledge that is the ability to solve problems by
applying their skills. The management needs to have education regarding carrying out of changes
appropriately.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that workplaces are presently undergoing
different types of changes such as technological changes and others and in order to adapt to the
same the employees and the management need to develop certain skills and undergo different
training and development programs. The paper aims at discussing the different changes taking
place on the organizational and the implications of these changes, suggestion regarding the same
and others.

7CHANGING WORKPLACE SKILLS
Reference
Documents.worldbank.org (2019). [online] Documents.worldbank.org. Available at:
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/816281518818814423/pdf/2019-WDR-
Report.pdf#page=27 [Accessed 17 Aug. 2019].
Lee, C., Huang, G.H. and Ashford, S.J., 2018. Job insecurity and the changing workplace: recent
developments and the future trends in job insecurity research. Annual Review of Organizational
Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5, pp.335-359.
Møller, N.L.H., Shklovski, I., Silberman, M., Dombrowski, L. and Lampinen, A., 2017. A
Constructive-Critical Approach to the Changing Workplace and its Technologies.
In Proceedings of 15th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work-
Panels, Posters and Demos. European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies (EUSSET).
O'Neill, M.J., 2016. Measuring workplace performance. CRC Press.
Young, W., Davis, M., McNeill, I.M., Malhotra, B., Russell, S., Unsworth, K. and Clegg, C.W.,
2015. Changing behaviour: successful environmental programmes in the workplace. Business
Strategy and the Environment, 24(8), pp.689-703.