EFFECT OF DIGITAL SKILLS, ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT ON EMPLOYEERESPONSE TO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

Abstract

The banking industry stands at the epicentre of digital shift as it leverages automation,
artificial intelligence, mobile applications, and data-driven decision systems to redefine
service delivery. This study examined the impact of Digital Skills and Organisational Support
on Employee Response to Technological Change in Access Bank Plc, Nigeria. Beyond the
shift to digitization, the most significant difference between past and present is that employee
flexibility now plays a major role in determining which banks succeed. The study utilized
TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) with a quantitative cross-sectional design to collect
data from 400 employees from key departments using a structured questionnaire. A
multistage sampling technique was adopted, involving purposive sampling to select Access
Bank Plc and relevant departments, and stratified sampling to ensure adequate
representation of employees across the selected departments. Partial Least Squares
Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM- version 4) analyses were used to examine direct
and moderating relationships among the variables. The findings indicated that employees
with strong digital competence are more positive and adaptive to technological change, while
those struggling with digital skills drastically outperform in supportive organisational
settings. Contextual or organisational support was identified as a facilitator that increased
employee confidence and readiness to work with new technologies. Furthermore, the
interaction effect of digital skills and organisational support showed that even employees
with medium digital skills exhibited a more positive response when sufficient support systems
exist. The overall model provided moderate explanatory and predictive power, indicating
both its reliability and theoretical validity. The study into these findings suggests the overall
success of digital transformation relies on technology but also human factors. It encourages
entities like Access Bank and others to invest in regular digital training, provide
infrastructure support, and practice transparency so as to engender proactive positive
responses from employees. From foregoing work to determine whether a digital-ready
workforce may be nurtured, organisations can cultivate a hard-wired innovative capacity at
the individual level that can support advancement of other know-hows in banking sector,
enabling Nigeria’s banking industry to achieve sustained innovation and long-term
competitiveness by combining technological growth with human advancement.