Wheel of Transformation

Abstract

This is a dissertation about a transformation that I call ‘reskilling’. Reskilling refers to a method, a way, or a symbol that describes the gaining of new skills for new jobs. In recent years, reskilling has emerged as a response to concerns for skills shortages and worker displacement as technology advances. When certain skills are no longer viable or valuable in the labour market, the idea is that they can be transformed into new ones through reskilling. Thus, reskilling is driven by labour market demand, but what it entails and how it can be done is open for interpretation.

This dissertation departs in an exploration of the characteristics of doing reskilling, as well as reskilling as a broader transformation. To investigate the characteristics of doing reskilling, I specifically look at rapid reskilling, an accelerated type of training aiming to get participants into new, in-demand roles in a short time span. Primarily, I investigate motives for organisations to engage in reskilling, and what conditions and factors might facilitate doing reskilling in organisations. I also examine reskilling as transformation. The empirical basis of this dissertation is qualitative and exploratory, and I have primarily used semi-structured interviews and social media posts to investigate reskilling. Furthermore, I frame this dissertation around the theoretical lens of resource transformation. Since I partly focus on firms’ ability to do reskilling, I specifically use the dynamic capability approach in which resource transformation is a key concept. Dynamic capabilities are something that companies have at an organisational level, often through managers and their processes. This may involve the ability to sense changes, seize opportunities, and carry out resource transformations to keep up with external developments, for example as a result of technological shifts.

I contribute in two ways. First, I contribute to the reskilling phenomenon by describing two facets of reskilling: doing reskilling and reskilling as transformation. Exploring two rapid reskilling programs I describe reasons for choosing to do reskilling and how reskilling can be ‘done’, that is, what organisational conditions might facilitate reskilling within organisations. I characterise general and rapid reskilling as two different things, where I propose that reskilling generally describes training to gain new skills for a new career or job, and rapid reskilling describes a specific accelerated model. I also discuss reskilling as a renewing wheel of transformation, and the limitations to the reskilling as transformation perspective. My second contribution is to the dynamic capability approach. I propose that firms that reskill have a reskilling capability, which can achieve transformation of internal human resources. I also propose that a reskilling capability is a second-order dynamic capability, achieving a human resource base change. I furthermore illustrate how the outcome of a reskilling capability – a human resource transformation that leads to a human resource base change – can be understood as a supporting transformation to a higher-level core transformation. Thus, I also contribute by introducing the core and supportive transformation terminology, which is helpful to distinguish on what level a reskilling capability can enact resource change.

urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-364886