DIGITAL NATIVES OR DIGITAL REFUGEES? PREVENTING CONFLICTING SELF-EFFICACY IN THE DIGITALIZED WORKPLACE

Immersed in technology since birth, digital natives are characterized by an unprecedented status of high digital proficiency and constitute the group with the greatest potential to meet the challenges of digitalization and work 4.0 embodied by the 4th Industrial Revolution. Computer literacy has been defined as the ability to use computers to perform a variety of tasks related to the specific field of information systems and technologies (IS/IT), and therefore consists of a specific competence, or hard skill typically acquired in formal education programmes aimed at training IS/IT professionals. However, in the current understanding that all individuals must be educated and trained to integrate highly immersed work environments, computer literacy has been growing closer to the core of soft skills required for the market entry profile of almost all professions, as a transversal skill that is required to execute any current and future job position. In this paper, we propose a methodology for the self-assessment and assessment of critical computer literacy skills of digital natives, aimed at the analysis and comparison of perceived skills and effective skills, their perceived relevance and the detection of cases of skills’ misevaluation, which leads to academic and professional conflicting self-efficacy and corresponding educational and work-related performance issues. It is our understanding that, despite the technological immersion of digital natives, this profile of individuals often lacks critical computer literacy skills to conduct elementary work tasks such as managing text documents and spreadsheets, which are widely assumed to be inherent and socially intrinsic digital skills. These conceptions are discussed under the current light of the needed hard and soft skills to enter the digitalized labor market.