Corporate talent management, digital technologies and the future of work

Mohamed Sadik, Nur Sahara 2023. Corporate talent management, digital technologies and the future of work. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Multiple studies of earlier periods of technological change highlight the crucial role that the social relations of production play in shaping technological deployment. However, this perspective is seldom considered when anticipating work opportunities during the fourth industrial revolution, with future-of-work studies predominantly concentrating on technological possibilities. This study plugs this gap. Using Singapore as a case study, it uses corporate talent management as a framework to examine how the social relations of production at the firm level shape digital programmes and the likely impact on the division of labour in firm and national contexts. A mixed-methods approach is utilised. The quantitative dataset includes 3,800 firms, complemented by qualitative investigations in 30 selected firms in Singapore. The research identifies four corporate talent management models prevalent in the Singapore economy: 'wealth of talent,' 'war for talent,' 'constrained talent,' and 'zero-talent'. The pattern of skills-biased technological change corresponds exclusively to 'wealth of talent' firms, distinguished by their business model that seeks to empower the broad workforce to engage in collaborative customisation with clients using digital tools. With ‘wealth of talent’ firms at only 25% of the dataset, it suggests that the Singapore economy is unlikely to experience skills-biased technological change. ‘War for talent’ is the dominant talent model in Singapore, accounting for 30% of the dataset. In these firms, digital technologies are employed to automate and standardise tasks typically performed by knowledge workers, forming part of firms’ value-capture strategies. Meanwhile, a substantial portion of the dataset is represented by 'constrained talent' and 'zero-talent' firms (45%) that use digital technologies to sustain price competition strategies without upgrading the skills demand of non-professional workers. Combined, the evidence suggests a new risk of high skill precarity in Singapore, with the fortunes of non-professional labour not being enhanced by digital technologies either. Coming at a time when more well-qualified Singaporeans enter the workforce due to a policy of mass university education, Singapore risks a shortage of quality jobs despite the good intent of its industrial policy to embrace digital transformation activities to grow the pipeline of high-skilled jobs in the economy.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 May 2024
Last Modified:	15 May 2024 09:43
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168851

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