Enhancing workplace competence acquisition through a persuasive system

Abstract

The continuous development of individual competences is a fundamental instrument for organizations aiming to achieve long-term competitive advantage. Digital technologies can play a pivotal role in competence acquisition by facilitating the learning process. This paper describes the design, development, and evaluation process of a competence acquisition mobile app incorporating persuasive systems principles. A pilot study involving managers from an IT consulting firm was used to evaluate the artifact. This was followed by a full-scale deployment of the mobile app with management and staff of a supermarket chain. The results indicate that the use of the mobile app effectively improved users’ learning process outcomes, as well as their ability to deploy the new competence. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.

Challenges of a Digitalising World in the Light of an International Survey

“…The successful integration of emerging digital tools will facilitate the operational functioning of organisations (Girrbach, 2018). This requires competent staff and managers (Ditzendy, 2017;Za et al, 2022). Dzwigol et al (2020) grouped the competencies expected of managers into four categories.…”

“…The importance of this transformational effect justifies the presentation of the results of this research (Abrahamson & Johansson, 2020;Maskun & Nor, 2018;Kusuma, 2018). Although there have been many studies on the subject (Barbosa et al, 2015;Li et al, 2017;D'Angelo, 2020, Sun et al, 2021Za et al, 2022), examining the readiness, behaviour, lack of or existing competences of human resources in different nations, the results of the studies are published in separate research papers (Lee et al, 2018;Mura & Svec, 2018;Frey & Osborn, 2013). There is no comprehensive international picture in the literature that would provide information on digital readiness regardless of geographical and cultural specificities.…”