Closing the Gender Gap in Human Capital Formation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Disparities in gender calculations in several nations have originated turbulence in multinational platforms in the recent past. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals list gender equality and women empowerment as the fifth of the eight goals. This study scrutinizes the gender gaps in human capital formation. It demonstrated the economic cost of gender inequality in human capital formation (losses in human capital attributable to gender inequality are estimated at $160.2 trillion) and considered some clear-cut involvements that can ease the realization of greater equality. To boost women's human capital formation, investments throughout the life cycle are obligatory. Successful involvements can be affected to tackle time use restrictions, support access to productive assets, and resolve market and institutional disappointments that reprimand women. Spending on girls and women is indispensable not only to boosting gender equality and the changing wealth of nations but also allowing nations to grow in maintainable manners.

Reshaping Education for the New Labour Market in Sub-Saharan African Countries

This chapter examines the vital role of education and training in the new labour market. It explores the relative importance of technical education and computer literacy for all able working citizens in sub-Saharan African countries. It states that heavy investment in education and training has a great return on productivity and has the potential to change societies for all citizens. The literature on new labour market documents that sub-Saharan African countries that have changed their educational system to reflect technical competency have been able to develop their workforce productivity and national economic development. It asserts that government policies on education and training should be of utmost priority to governance in order to enhance the labour market in the 21st century.

Technology Incubator and Entrepreneurship Development

The importance of technology in advancing experiential learning and building entrepreneurs that can withstand the challenges and explore the opportunities in the fourth industrial revolution are enormous. The chapter adopted a literature review approach to establish the link between technology incubator and entrepreneurship development. The concepts of technology incubator and entrepreneurship development as well as other related concepts were extensively discussed. It identifies the need for adequate investments toward tech entrepreneurship development and tech-savvy for the future through technology incubation programmes. Such programmes set to aid innovativeness, creating jobs, fast-tracking research to industry linkages, building wealth by fostering the formation of new ventures, among others. The chapter concludes that institutions for entrepreneurship development need to shift their tents to cover major areas of technological revolution, particularly technological incubation to promote entrepreneurship development in Industry 4.0.

Human Capital Formation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

This chapter focuses on the drivers of human capital development in the fourth industrial revolution by examining the role of women. It discusses the role of women in economic development since 570BC. Women are ignored in most important areas in society whereas men are found at the frontline. However, available empirical analyses suggest that when women are empowered, they are able to turn the tables in their favour. The chapter outlines development role played by selected women across time and uses data from studies to show poor representation of women on international bodies and parliamentary seats. Selected women that have led and continue to lead various countries all over the world are presented. This chapter argues that women are important stakeholders in economic freedom. The chapter suggests encouraging society and men in particular to help women become front line participants in the human capital development for the fourth industrial revolution.

The Future of Workforce Planning

This chapter examines the future of workforce planning in contemporary work organisations. Workforce planning is regarded as one of the essential human resource management (HRM) activities in recent times. The reason is that it gives indication on areas of needs and serves as the pillar for all HRM activities such as job analysis, recruitment and selection, training and development, remuneration/rewards, and promotion. A review of empirical literature reveals that workforce planning has a strong relationship with organisational performance as well as productivity. This chapter submits that HR metrics and workforce analytics can be used as a tool to improve organisational outcomes. To boost human activity, intelligence apps and analytics or cognitive analytics robotics could be adopted to improve HR's value to the business.

Identification of Challenges and Opportunities for Work 4.0 Competences Developing in Slovakia

Industry 4.0 and its effect on processes and people becomes reality with all organizational and technological complex implications for the future. States around the world including Slovakia face the challenge of defining strategy on how to convert the challenges of Industry 4.0 into competitive advantage. This chapter focuses on Work 4.0 competences development, analyzed in the level of enrichment of the human capital content as well as in the level of labor market polarization. The aim of this chapter is to present opportunities and threats in competence development regarding the concept of Intelligent Industry and discuss sustainable solutions in the context of National Action Plan of Intelligent Industry of Slovak Republic, looking for win-win strategy. The authors analyze differences in competences achieved via education system in Slovakia and expectations of industry. Special attention is given the situation in Slovakia, country-oriented on automotive and with strong cooperation with Germany as innovation leader in European countries, to find strategy within this no zero game.

Rethinking Education System for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The use of automation and artificial intelligence in recent times has created two options for stakeholders in the global business environment. The stakeholders are capable of becoming the agents or victims of inevitable transformation. This chapter explores a review of education system across the globe in building human capital to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities in the fourth industrial revolution. This chapter combines a literature review approach and personal observation in higher education institutions in advancing education system for the fourth industrial revolution. The use of chatbot as a training needs assessment technique is effective in collecting variety of information about needs, problems, potential problems, perceptions, attitudes, and opinions in the digital age. This chapter holds that teaching contents and techniques should be structured in line with the learners' objectives, students' needs, and skills in high demand by employers in the fourth industrial revolution.

Intellectual Capital Reporting and Disclosure Practices in Sri Lanka

This chapter examines disclosure practices of intellectual capital in the Sri Lankan context. The chapter provides an empirical analysis to showcase the relationship between intellectual capital reporting and the management perception. The three capital components identified in the intellectual capital are human capital, organizational capital, and social capital. Those capitals give a considerable contribution on the wealth of the organization and the main problem is the subjectivity and complexity of the disclosure practices of the listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange from 2013 – 2016. This study is based on the intellectual capital disclosure practices published in annual reports for the period of 3 years. The managerial perception and company characteristics were linked with the intellectual capital disclosure practices. The study found no common procedure for disclosure among the annual reports while the details of intellectual capital disclosures vary considerably from one annual report to another.

Effective Integration of Technology and Human Capital Development in Healthcare

Human capital development is important for organizations and most industries in the United States of America (USA). In the healthcare industry, human capital development is a priority due to the variety of skilled and unique positions within one of the most regulated industries within the USA. Integration of work processes, operational efficiencies, and assimilating regulatory changes are a pre-requisite for human resource professionals to remain competitive as well as remain operationally relevant. Information technology adoption in healthcare must continue to improve to address some of the industry's largest challenges: turnover, retention, and education. The intent of this chapter is to outline the existing challenges of human capital development in healthcare and how information technology provides significant value to closing the gaps of the alarming trends that exist in the industry.

Leadership for Enhancing Organisational Performance Through Workforce Reskilling

Leadership styles adopted influence employee performance, but merely appropriate style without workforce reskilling cannot ensure sustainable and holistic organizational performance. The objective of this chapter is to explore and analyze leadership for enhancing organizational performance through workforce reskilling in the context of a local authority, namely municipality. Adopting mixed method approach, the primary data was collected by administering questionnaires. A sample size of 100 respondents participated in the study with the aid of convenience sampling technique for proportionate representation from each department. However, out of 100 questionnaires distributed, only 96 were completed and returned. Analysis is done by STATISTICA Software. The findings reflect that both democratic and autocratic leadership are adopted and there was insufficient workforce reskilling required to meet the current needs of the organization.