Digital Transformations in the Challenge of Activity and Work

13Is the Obsolescence of the Skills of Older Employees an Inevitable Consequence of Digitalization?

Digital technology characterizes new forms of work organization and requires employees to develop new skills. However, this development is not self-evident, especially for certain “vulnerable” populations, such as older employees. In this chapter, after a presentation of the implications of aging in the context of an activity mediated by a technical tool, we will present the results of research conducted among SNCF controllers. By looking at their activity “in the making”, we have highlighted the conditions promoting the development of skills suitable for the use of a technical tool.

13.1. Introduction

The large-scale integration of digital technology in various forms and in most professional spheres has paved the way for profound transformations and speculation about the future of work (Gomez 2018). The literature, which is abundant on this subject, highlights the extent to which the use of digital technology can have an effect on employment, improving certain aspects (autonomy, versatility) and weakening others (control, deskilling). One of these is of particular interest to us and will be the subject of this chapter: the links between technologies and skills (Bailey et al. 2010). Studies conducted using the “skill-biased technological change” approach show a shift in job creation from the most skilled to the least skilled (Card and DiNardo 2002), thus revealing a “digital ...