IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v44y2023i4p1084-1104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital skills in context: Working with robots in lower-skilled jobs

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Lloyd

    (School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK)

  • Jonathan Payne

    (The Department of Politics, People and Place, Faculty of Business and Law, De Montfort University, UK)

Abstract

Digital skills are increasingly presented as essential for work and labour market inclusion, with fears the low-skilled could be left behind. Lack of clarity about these new skill demands and limited evidence from the workplace have prompted calls to unpack skill requirements in specific sectors and occupations. This article analyses digital skills in relation to wider skills and knowledge required in a job, and examines the influence of the workplace, sector and national institutional context. The study focuses on robotic technologies in lower-skilled jobs, drawing on the experience of food and drink processing operatives, and logistic porters and service workers in public hospitals, in Norway and the UK. The article contributes to the conceptualisation of digital skills, probes country differences, and offers a grounded understanding of the challenges presented for workers in lower-skilled jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Lloyd & Jonathan Payne, 2023. "Digital skills in context: Working with robots in lower-skilled jobs," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(4), pages 1084-1104, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:44:y:2023:i:4:p:1084-1104
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X221111416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X221111416
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X221111416?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward Lorenz, 2015. "Work Organisation, Forms of Employee Learning and Labour Market Structure: Accounting for International Differences in Workplace Innovation," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(2), pages 437-466, June.
    2. António B. Moniz & Bettina-Johanna Krings, 2016. "Robots Working with Humans or Humans Working with Robots? Searching for Social Dimensions in New Human-Robot Interaction in Industry," Societies, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Sabine Pfeiffer, 2016. "Robots, Industry 4.0 and Humans, or Why Assembly Work Is More than Routine Work," Societies, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-26, May.
    4. Caroline Lloyd & Jonathan Payne, 2021. "Fewer jobs, better jobs? An international comparative study of robots and ‘routine’ work in the public sector," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 109-124, March.
    5. Martin, John P., 2018. "Live Longer, Work Longer: The Changing Nature of the Labour Market for Older Workers in OECD Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 11510, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Henrik Brynthe Lund & Asbjørn Karlsen, 2020. "The importance of vocational education institutions in manufacturing regions: adding content to a broad definition of regional innovation systems," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 660-679, June.
    7. Francis Green & Alan Felstead & Duncan Gallie & Hande Inanc & Nick Jewson, 2016. "The Declining Volume of Workers’ Training in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 422-448, June.
    8. Pfeiffer, Sabine, 2016. "Robots, Industry 4.0 and humans, or why assembly work is more than routine work," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(2 (Articl), pages 1-26.
    9. Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2017. "Automation, skill requirements and labour-use strategies: high-wage and low-wage approaches to high-tech manufacturing in the automotive industry," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 247-267.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cirillo, Valeria & Rinaldini, Matteo & Staccioli, Jacopo & Virgillito, Maria Enrica, 2021. "Technology vs. workers: the case of Italy’s Industry 4.0 factories," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 166-183.
    2. Krings, Bettina-Johanna & Moniz, António & Frey, Philipp, 2021. "Technology as enabler of the automation of work? Current societal challenges for a future perspective of work [A tecnologia como facilitadora da automação do trabalho? Desafios sociais atuais para ," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(21), pages 7-30.
    3. Krzywdzinski, Martin & Gerber, Christine & Evers, Maren, 2018. "The Social Consequences of the Digital Revolution," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 101-120.
    4. Caroline Lloyd & Jonathan Payne, 2021. "Fewer jobs, better jobs? An international comparative study of robots and ‘routine’ work in the public sector," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 109-124, March.
    5. Armanda Cetrulo & Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2020. "Anatomy of the Italian occupational structure: concentrated power and distributed knowledge," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(6), pages 1345-1379.
    6. Krzywdzinski, Martin & Gerst, Detlef & Butollo, Florian, 2022. "Promoting human-centred AI in the workplace. Trade unions and their strategies for regulating the use of AI in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue OnlineFir, pages 1-1.
    7. Fonseca Luis Miguel, 2018. "Industry 4.0 and the digital society: concepts, dimensions and envisioned benefits," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 386-397, May.
    8. Christian Resch, 2017. "Networks in Assembly: Investigating Social Factors in Robotic Automation," IET Working Papers Series 01/2017, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, IET/CICS.NOVA-Interdisciplinary Centre on Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology.
    9. Honorine Harlé & Pascal Le Masson & Benoit Weil, 2021. "A model of creative heritage for industry: designing new rules while preserving the present system of rules [Un modèle de patrimoine de création pour l'industrie: concevoir de nouvelles règles dans," Post-Print hal-03406761, HAL.
    10. Mónica Santana & Mirta Díaz-Fernández, 2023. "Competencies for the artificial intelligence age: visualisation of the state of the art and future perspectives," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 1971-2004, August.
    11. Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2017. "Automation, skill requirements and labour-use strategies: high-wage and low-wage approaches to high-tech manufacturing in the automotive industry," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 247-267.
    12. Caselli, Mauro & Fracasso, Andrea & Scicchitano, Sergio & Traverso, Silvio & Tundis, Enrico, 2021. "Stop worrying and love the robot: An activity-based approach to assess the impact of robotization on employment dynamics," GLO Discussion Paper Series 802, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Prodi, Elena & Tassinari, Mattia & Ferrannini, Andrea & Rubini, Lauretta, 2022. "Industry 4.0 policy from a sociotechnical perspective: The case of German competence centres," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    14. Moniz, António Brandão & Krings, Bettina-Johanna, 2022. "“Manufacturing Life” in Real Work Processes? New Manufacturing Environments with Micro- and Nanorobotics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Latest ar.
    15. Jean-Philippe Deranty & Thomas Corbin, 2022. "Artificial Intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences," Papers 2204.00419, arXiv.org.
    16. A. Cetrulo & A. Sbardella & M. E. Virgillito, 2023. "Vanishing social classes? Facts and figures of the Italian labour market," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 97-148, January.
    17. Pier Giacomo Cardinali & Pietro De Giovanni, 2022. "Responsible digitalization through digital technologies and green practices," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 984-995, July.
    18. Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2019. "Digitalisierung und Wandel der globalen Arbeitsteilung. Industriearbeit im Wandel," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 88-109.
    19. Dashi Nazarov & Anton Klarin, 2020. "Taxonomy of Industry 4.0 research: Mapping scholarship and industry insights," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 535-556, July.
    20. Martin Krzywdzinski & Detlef Gerst & Florian Butollo, 2023. "Promoting human-centred AI in the workplace. Trade unions and their strategies for regulating the use of AI in Germany," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(1), pages 53-70, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:44:y:2023:i:4:p:1084-1104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.