Arbeitspapier

Employee involvement, technology and job tasks

Using new job requirements data for Britain I show that there has been a rise in various forms of communication tasks: influencing and literacy tasks have grown especially fast, as have self-planning tasks. External communication tasks, and numerical tasks have also become more important, but physical tasks have largely remained unchanged. Although the classification of tasks as programmable or otherwise is found to be problematic, computer use accounts for much of the changed use of generic skills. Going beyond the technology, I investigate whether organisational changes requiring greater employee involvement explain some of the new skill requirements. Using either industry or occupation panel analyses, I find that employee involvement raises the sorts of generic skills that human resource management models predict, in particular three categories of communication skills and self-planning skills. These effects are found to be independent of the effect of computers on generic skills.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper ; No. 09,03

Classification
Wirtschaft
Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
Labor Demand
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination: Other
Subject
communication skill
literacy
numeracy
computers
autonomy
Humankapital
Qualifikation
Arbeitsbedingungen
Soziale Kompetenz
Computer
Großbritannien

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Green, Francis
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
University of Kent, Department of Economics
(where)
Canterbury
(when)
2009

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Green, Francis
  • University of Kent, Department of Economics

Time of origin

  • 2009

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