References
This database has been compiled to provide a searchable repository on published research addressing “future skills” that will be a useful tool for researchers and individuals interested in the future of work and the future of skills.
The database integrates existing bibliographies focused on future skills and the future of work as well as the results of new ProQuest and Google Scholar searches. The process of building the database also involved consultations with experts and the identification of key research organizations publishing in this area, as well as searches of those organizations’ websites. For a more detailed explanation of how the database was assembled, please read the Future Skills Reference Database Technical Note.
The current database, assembled by future skills researchers at the Diversity Institute, is not exhaustive but represents a first step in building a more comprehensive database. It will be regularly updated and expanded as new material is published and identified. In that vein, we encourage those with suggestions for improvements to this database to connect with us directly at di.fsc@ryerson.ca.
From this database, we also selected 39 key publications and created an Annotated Bibliography. It is designed to serve as a useful tool for researchers, especially Canadian researchers, who may need some initial guidance in terms of the key references in this area.
Search the database
Reference
The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?
We examine how susceptible jobs are to computerisation. To assess this, we begin by implementing a novel methodology to estimate the probability of computerisation for 702 detailed occupations, using a Gaussian process classifier. Based on these estimates, we examine expected impacts of future computerisation on US labour market outcomes, with the primary objective of analysing the number of jobs at risk and the relationship between an occupations probability of computerisation, wages and educational attainment.
Reference
Beyond belonging and identification: A theory of inclusive practices and why they work
Despite evidence of the value of diversity in workplaces, and considerable research on particular areas of diversity management practice, there is less knowledge to date of how, why, and when such practices lead to inclusion. This paper suggests four areas in which embedded, structural practices together constitute inclusion and discusses mechanisms that may render these operative and effective, namely voice, felt security, and felt fairness. It argues that a practice-based theory of inclusion has the potential to augment current understandings of inclusion by extending beyond the individual level of analysis, to conceptualize inclusion as embedded in organizational cultures, norms and structures, produced and reproduced through the choices and practices of organizational actors.
Reference
The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?
We examine how susceptible jobs are to computerisation. To assess this, we begin by implementing a novel methodology to estimate the probability of computerisation for 702 detailed occupations, using a Gaussian process classifier. Based on these estimates, we examine expected impacts of future computerisation on US labour market outcomes, with the primary objective of analysing the number of jobs at risk and the relationship between an occupations probability of computerisation, wages and educational attainment.
Reference
The overqualified Canadian graduate: The role of the academic program in the incidence, persistence, and economic returns to overqualification
This study investigates the role of the academic program in the incidence, persistence, and economic returns to overqualification among recent Canadian post-secondary graduates. Master's graduates are far more prone to overqualification than other graduates. Overqualification rates vary considerably by major field of study at the college and bachelor's levels, but not at the master's level. Graduates who are overqualified shortly after entering the workforce are far more likely to remain overqualified in the following years. Weak evidence suggests that co-op graduates are less likely to be overqualified at the bachelor's and master's levels, but not at the college level (where co-op programs are more popular). There is a strong, negative earnings effect associated with overqualification at the college and bachelor's levels, most of which dissipates after accounting for unobserved heterogeneity in a longitudinal framework. There is little or no earnings effect at the master's and doctoral levels.
Reference
On-the-job-training
The analysis of how individuals obtain and are paid for their skills is fundamental to labor economics. The basic idea of human capital theory is that workers and firms invest in workers' skills in order to increase their productivity, much as persons invest in financial or physical assets to earn income. Workers develop many skills through formal education not tied to an employer, but an important part of their skills are learned on the job. This paper is a survey of the recent literature on on-the-job training, both theoretical and empirical.
Reference
Making the intern economy: Role and career challenges of the music industry intern
This article focuses on a major host of unpaid intern labor-the music industry-to examine how internships function as a challenging, intermediary step for individuals attempting to launch careers. Based on interviews and participant observation, the author finds that ambiguity plays an important role in producing and maintaining the intern economy. The author uses the term provisional labor to describe the temporary, conditional, and ambiguous standing of interns, as they simultaneously build their employability and provide inexpensive labor. The case study reveals why aspirants encounter varying opportunities in their internships, which may differ from their respective hopes, expectations, and career aspirations.
Reference
Intersectional arithmetic: How gender, race and mother tongue combine to impact immigrants' work outcomes
We use an intercategorical approach to intersectionality to quantify pay and attainment of supervisory positions for groups of immigrants and their descendants who also vary in gender, mother tongue, and race. Using a Canadian nationally representative sample of 20,000 employees across 6000 firms, we find a $10,000 spread in annual pay between the groups with the most advantages and those experiencing the most barriers, loosely corresponding to an additive model of intersectional benefits and barriers. The effects of immigrant generation are partially mitigated by the degree to which firms are internationally-oriented, indicating that international businesses may help to reduce inequities.
Reference
Managing intractable identity conflicts
Identity is often at the heart of ongoing intergroup conflicts in organizations. Drawing from theories of conflict management, social identity, and organizational identification, we develop the intractable identity conflict resolution model, which delineates a multiphase process by which the conflicting parties' identities shift in order to permit eventual intergroup harmony.