Testing the contribution of multi-skilled employees to the financial performance of high-tech organizations

Abstract This paper presents a study that found no support for the claim: “Employees with multiple skills enable organizations to thrive in dynamically changing and unpredictable environments.” The study showed that the “multi-skilled worker” (MSW) was a non-significant predictor of financial performance in a statistical analysis of companies that operated in these environments. A sample of companies drawn from three high-technology industries (suppliers to the automotive industry, electronic instrumentation, and semiconductor manufacturers) showed no relationship between employee skill diversity and financial performance. As a result, it appears that the benefits of a multi-skilled workforce may be overstated in terms of its contribution to the organization's financial performance. Or, it may simply suggest that the additional profits generated by responsive, multi-skilled employees are insufficient to offset the additional costs associated with training and hiring them. Companies should be aware of these issues when considering plans to expand employee skill sets as part of a strategy for improving responsiveness.

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