Characterization of Tasks and Skills of Workers, Middle and Top Managers in the Industry 4.0 Context

Diamantino Torres, Carina Pimentel and João C. O. Matias ()
Additional contact information
Diamantino Torres: GOVCOPP, Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT), Campus Universitário de Santiago, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Carina Pimentel: Algoritmi Research Unit, Production and Systems Department, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Campus Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
João C. O. Matias: GOVCOPP, Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT), Campus Universitário de Santiago, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-30

Abstract: This study intends to make a characterization of the main tasks and skills needed to face the Industry 4.0. Moreover, it gives special attention to the different company’s hierarchical levels. To achieve the goals of this paper, a methodology based on Collaborative Decision Making method was used. Firstly, thirty participants were interviewed to understand their point of views. Next, they were split into Group Works to refine the results. Finally, a Group Concordance took place to create the final list of tasks and skills. The skills were organized into four categories: Technical, Social, Methodological and Personal. The results show different requirements in each level. In the Workers level, due to the presence of more technical tasks, eight of the top ten skills belong to the Technical category. In the Middle Managers level, there are tasks of both leading and analyzing nature and thus the top ten skills needed are split through the four categories. Finally, in the Top Managers level, due to the presence of mainly strategy tasks, the top ten skills are split between the Methodological and Social categories. To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to use a Collaborative Decision Making methodology to develop a set of tasks and skills that future work environments will demand on the different hierarchical levels of the organization.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; tasks; skills; workers level; middle managers level; top management level; Collaborative Decision Making; consensus; professional’s judgment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6981/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6981/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:8:p:6981-:d:1129073

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().