Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize employees’ digital skills as signals with which employees tacitly deliver information about their competence and suitability to the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on the Spence’s signaling theory.
Findings
Applying Spence’s signaling theory and Walther and Parks’s warranting theory enables the conceptualization of digital skills as signals and warrants among older workers who have been employed in their position for a longer period but nevertheless wish to demonstrate ongoing productivity.
Practical implications
It is recommended to use information about prospective or existent employees’ digital literacy as an indicator of high priority for the purpose of personnel selection, as it entails the acquisition of digital skills, which facilitate high productivity of most industries in today’s era.
Social implications
Older workers may wish to acquire digital skills in order to improve their career chances.
Originality/value
The paper is a theoretical contribution to the scholarship of digital literacy as well as to both signaling and warranting theories.
Subject
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management,Public Administration,Applied Psychology
Reference87 articles.
1. The impact of computer use on earnings in the UK;Scottish Journal of Political Economy,2004
2. Career development in Israel: characteristics, services and challenges;Career Planning and Adult Development Journal,2011
3. The digital natives debate: a critical review of the evidence;British Journal of Educational Technology,2008
4. Enforcement of employment security regulations, on-the-job search and unemployment duration;European Economic Review,1999
5. Boockmann, B., Fries, J. and Göbel, C. (2012), “Specific measures for older employees and late career employment”, ZEW-Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 12-059, available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2159817; http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2159817
Cited by
13 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献