Building skills in the context of digital transformation: How industry digital maturity drives proactive skill development

Abstract

Digital transformation is changing the employee skills that organizations need to succeed. In this context, it is increasingly important for employees to proactively develop their skills. The emerging research on employee proactive skill development has largely ignored the possible role of employees’ perceptions of large-scale changes in organizations’ environments in their motivation to engage in such valuable behavior. We address this gap using cognitive-affective personality system theory to explain how macrolevel development affects employee behavior. Existing data on industry digital maturity were combined with survey data of 710 higher education graduates from various organizations and industries collected at two separate time points. The results support the hypothesized positive indirect effects of industry digital maturity on proactive skill development via employees’ interpretation of digitalization as controllable and as an opportunity for their organization. We discuss the implications for research and organizational practice.