DefinePK

Abstract

Within the concept of Industry 4.0, this paper analyzes the level of digital literacy of employees of the manufacturing industry in Gujranwala, Pakistan, with the view of determining how the technological, organizational, and environmental circumstances affect digital competence and readiness to digital transformation. The survey was conducted using a well-organized questionnaire that was administered by means of random sampling of 178 manufacturing employees in accordance with the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) scheme. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data manually through Smart PLS-4 to guarantee clarity and accuracy. The outcome revealed rather high rates of digital literacy in technological (DLT = 4.30), organizational (DLO = 4.35), and environmental (DLE = 4.33) settings. A slightly lower correlation was, however, identified between the influence of digital literacy on the employee performance (DLEP = 3.95). The constructs possessed a high level of internal consistency and convergent validity which confirmed the usefulness of the TOE framework in assessing digital readiness. The paper recommends that companies seeking to improve their level of technological adaptation ought to deploy job role-focused digital learning programs and perform a digital literacy audit. Digital literacy tests should be implemented into the recruitment processes and performance management systems utilized by human resource policies, and the old-fashioned performance indicators need to be changed into digital KPIs. The study is one of the few research works on digital transformation in the manufacturing industry in the Gujranwala region, which will provide practical recommendations on upskilling industrial workers in developing economies.