Explorando habilidades requeridas para la industria 4.0: Un enfoque orientado al trabajador

Tecnologías emergentes están dando forma al mundo del trabajo, creando así una industria cada vez más digital, también conocida como "Industria 4.0". Por tanto, examinar el requirimiento de habilidades se vuelve esencial para facilitar la adaptación organizacional a esta revolución tecnológica. El objetivo de este estudio fue explorar la percepción de las habilidades requeridas por los trabajadores de una empresa manufacturera altamente tecnológica. En el Estudio 1 (n = 671), se realizó un análisis factorial exploratorio para identificar grupos relevantes de habilidades. Un año después, en el Estudio 2 (n = 176), confirmamos la estructural factorial a través de un análisis factorial confirmatorio y realizamos un análisis de curva de crecimiento latente para examinar posibles cambios en las habilidades requeridas debido al confinamiento y el trabajo remoto forzado durante la pandemia del COVID-19. Los resultados mostraron que las habilidades cognitivas, funcionales del negocio, estratégicas y de gestión de personas se consideran recursos importantes para la industria 4.0, siendo las habilidades funcionales del negocio más relevantes en el tiempo 2. Además, identificamos diferencias entre gerentes y subordinados con respecto a tales habilidades. Discutimos las implicaciones teóricas y prácticas para el desarrollo de habilidades en la era digital. Emerging technologies are shaping the world of work, thus creating an increasingly digital industry, also known as “Industry 4.0”. Thus, examining skill requirements becomes essential to facilitate organizational adaptation to this technological revolution. The aim of this study was to explore the perception of skill requirements of workers of a highly technological manufacturing company. In Study 1 (n = 671), an exploratory factor analysis was carried out to identify relevant groups of skills. A year later, in Study 2 (n = 176), we confirmed the factor structure through a confirmatory factor analysis and we conducted a latent growth curve analysis to examine potential changes of the previous skill requirements due to the lockdown and the forced remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings showed that cognitive, functional business, strategic and managing people skills are considered as important resources for the industry 4.0, being the functional business skills increasingly relevant in time 2. Moreover, we identified differences between managers and subordinates regarding such skills. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for skills development in the digital age.

Changes in Autistic Symptoms and Adaptive Functioning of Children Receiving Early Behavioral Intervention in a Community Setting: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis

Despite showing robust effects in well-controlled studies, the extent to which early intensive behavioral intervention produces positive changes in naturalistic, community-based settings remains uncertain. Thus, our study examined changes in autistic symptoms and adaptive functioning in 233 children in children with autism receiving early behavioral intervention in a community setting. The results revealed nonlinear changes in adaptive functioning characterized by significant improvements during the intervention period and a small linear decrease in autistic symptoms from baseline to follow-up. The intensity of intervention, age at enrolment, IQ and autistic symptoms were associated either with progress during the intervention period or maintenance during the follow-up period. Taken together, these results underline the importance of conducting further replications in community settings.

Trajectories of compliance with COVID-19 related guidelines: longitudinal analyses of 50,000 UK adults

BackgroundGovernments have implemented a range of measure to tackle COVID-19, primarily focusing on changing citizens’ behaviours in order to lower transmission of the virus. Some policymakers have expressed concern that citizens would not maintain high levels of compliance with these behaviours over the pandemic and would instead exhibit so-called “behavioural fatigue”. While the concept has been criticized, there have been few tests of behavioural fatigue using data from the COVID-19 pandemic, and none that have tracked individuals’ compliance trajectoriesMethodsWe used longitudinal data on self-reported compliance from 50,851 adults in the COVID-19 Social Study collected across two waves of the pandemic in the UK (01 April 2020 – 22 February 2021). We modelled typical compliance trajectories using latent growth curve analysis (LGCA) and tested for behavioural fatigue by attempting to identify a set of participants whose compliance decreased substantially over the study period.ResultsWe selected a four-class LGCA solution. Most individuals maintained high levels of compliance over the pandemic and reported similar levels of compliance across the first and second waves. Approximately one in seven participants had decreasing levels of compliance across the pandemic, reporting noticeably lower levels of compliance in the second wave, a pattern compatible with behavioural fatigue. Individuals with declining compliance levels differed from those with consistently high compliance on multiple characteristics, including (young) age, better physical health, lower empathy and conscientiousness and greater general willingness to take risks.ConclusionWhile a minority, not all individuals have maintained high compliance across the pandemic. Decreasing compliance is related to several psychological traits. The results suggest that targeting of behaviour change messages later in the pandemic may be needed to increase compliance.