Digital leadership, well-being and performance in organizations

The intense use of ICTS in the workplace, despite its advantages, presents important challenges to employees’ well-being and performance. While leaders play an important role in shaping employees’ experiences with ICTS, it is unclear whether traditional leadership approaches are still sufficient and need to be complemented – or even replaced - with other leadership styles to deal with the challenges arising from ICTS. Therefore, the DIGILEAD project focuses on how leadership affects the relation between employees’ experiences with ICTS and their well-being and performances. In addition, whether digital leadership, as a newly identified leadership style, affects these relations. Answering these questions is relevant to help businesses in Europe overcome the challenges of digitalization and ensure both organizations and their employees benefit from the digital economy. The overall objectives and related work in the second reporting period of the project are summarized below:
OB1 - Provide a systematic literature review on the role of leadership in relation to employees’ technological demands and resources: We have delivered the final result (P1) “a systematic review of information systems research, work and organizational psychology, human resource management and leadership literature on the role of leadership in dealing with technological job demands” (WP1).
OB2 - Construct a digital leadership inventory (DLI) to measure digital leadership: We have delivered the final result (P2) “constructing, validating and documenting the DLI, as a reliable scale to measure digital leadership in organizations” (WP2).
OB3 - Conduct an empirical test of the DLI to assess how digital leadership regulates the relationships between technological demands in the workplace vis-à-vis employees’ well-being and performance: We are finalizing the final result (P3) “empirical test of the DLI, to assess how digital leadership buffers or strengthens the relation between technological job characteristics and employee well-being and performance” (WP3).
OB4 - Translate knowledge on how leaders can help employees to deal with ICTS in the workplace to the professional sphere (WP4): We are finalizing the final result (P4) “practitioner-oriented digital leadership seminar, demonstrating the use of the DLI as a scanner to assess digital leadership within organizations.”

During the whole reporting period, five of the seven milestones have been successfully achieved. During the first period (month 1-12), we achieved the completed manuscript for the systematic review (M1.1) and the data collection for the scale construction (M2.1). During the second period (month 13-24), we completed the manuscript for the scale construction (M2.2) collected the data for the empirical test (M3.1) and organized the digital leadership seminar (M4.1). We are progressing with the manuscript for the empirical model test (M3.2). The digital leadership seminar (M4.1) is currently scheduled for Spring 2023. Consequentially, we expect the remaining two milestones will be reached by that time.

The achieved milestones are described below:
M1.1: Completed manuscript for the systematic review (currently under review)
M2.1: Completed of data collection for WP2
M2.2: Completed manuscript for the scale construction paper (currently under review)
M3.1: Completion of data collection for WP3
M4.1: Location, guest list and programme ready for digital leadership training seminar.

The following are currently in progress:
M3.2: Completed manuscript for the empirical model test
M4.2: Kick-off digital leadership training seminar

In addition, (1) a reworked version of M1.1 will appear as a book chapter in Research Handbook on Human Resource Management and Disruptive Technologies. Also, (2) we have written a paper on leadership and Covid-19 with attention to digital leadership and (3) published a paper on a small empirical pre-test of a part of the DLI.

For a long time, research on managing technology in organizations was the exclusive domain of information system theorists. In recent years, this topic has also caught the interest of psychologists, human resource management and leadership researchers, which has broadened the focus from technology towards the people that work with this technology on a daily basis. DIGILEAD adopts a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together insights from these different disciplines and focusing on leadership as a potential ‘macro-micro link’ between technology implementation and the well-being and performance of employees. Research on the role of leaders as regulators of technological job characteristics in the workplace is still in its exploratory phase. Likewise, the scholarship of digital leadership is in its infancy, with little empirical studies existing so far. Insights into (1) how leaders influence and interact with technological job characteristics in the workplace and (2) which particular styles or behaviors these leaders could adopt to ensure positive employee outcomes, presents a promising research avenue. This responds to the growing interest from researchers and practitioners in comprehending how they can manage challenges resulting from the intense use of ICTS in the workplace. At the same time, the findings of the proposed project have great outreach potential, especially to businesses within the European Union that are currently undergoing digitalization. DIGILEAD aims to transfer knowledge on how leaders can effectively deal with the challenges of organizational digitalization and its subsequent effects on employees. The key message of DIGILEAD is that the omnipresence of ICTS in the modern workplace constitutes a leadership challenge. Moreover, the challenges associated with ICTS call for a focus on people, in addition to a focus on technology. Therefore, DIGILEAD aims to transfer knowledge on how leaders can effectively deal with the challenges of organizational digitalization and its subsequent effects on employees.

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DIGILEAD (Digital leadership, well-being and performance in organizations)

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