Status: completed
Description
New leadership challenges arise through digital transformation (cf. Avolio et al., 2009; Cascio & Montealegre, 2016; Schallmo et al., 2017). Hence, leaders are facing unprecedented situations, triggered by a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, also described as VUCA world (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014). In the light of these developments, existing leadership approaches insufficiently meet the challenges of digital transformation (Bolden & O’Regan, 2016) and suit the 21st century workplace (Anderson et al., 2017). Although the consequences of these new digital technologies will be significant for leadership, academic research in this area is still very limited (Bolden & O’Regan, 2016; Van Wart et al., 2017). So far, no quantitative empirical study reveals which leadership behaviors leaders should use to successfully face digital transformation. Therefore, Avolio et al. (2014) state “[…] to totally rethink what constitutes an organization and in turn, its leadership” (p. 126).
Following the call for adaptions to current leadership theories (Anderson et al., 2017), one core purpose of our research project is to conceptualize a Digital Leadership Framework which is appropriate to manage digital transformation. To conceptualize a Digital Leadership Framework, we draw on the Competing Values Framework (CVF), which postulates that a leader exhibits multiple roles and behaviors. Moreover, we seek to develop and validate a digital leadership scale.
The VUCA environment imposes novel requirements on organizations and their respective leaders (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014). However, researchers have barely studied the potential effects of these disruptive developments on leadership (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). Against this background, a second purpose of this research project is to investigate how the VUCA environment affects the digital leadership roles.
Extant research on the effectiveness of leaders has shown that leadership behavior has important effects on employee-related and organizational outcomes (Anderson et al., 2017). Studies emphasize the value of having effective leaders in place to achieve social, personal, and organizational goals (Yukl, 2012). However, there is scarce research on how leadership behavior in the digital era influences follower motivation and performance (Avolio et al., 2009). Therefore, our third purpose is to analyze the impact of the digital leadership roles on organizational as well as employee-related outcomes, such as group and individual performance. Moreover, we will also test for moderating effects of context variables on the relationship between (a) VUCA environment and the digital leadership roles, and (b) the digital leadership roles and outcome variables.
Overall, we will examine antecedents and outcomes of digital leadership roles using a mixed method approach.
Our contributions to the leadership literature are threefold. First, we provide insight into appropriate leadership roles and behaviors in the light of digital transformation. We extend the CVF literature by (a) adapting the CVF and corresponding leadership roles to digital transformation and (b) identifying relevant triggers of these managerial roles. Second, we seek to develop and test a digital leadership scale capturing the different leadership roles. Third, we will offer novel insights into drivers and effects of the digital leadership roles using a dyadic data set.
Involved Persons
Publications
- Weber, E., Krehl, E.-H., Büttgen, M., & Schweikert, K. (2019). The Digital Leadership Framework: Insigts into New Leadership Roles Facing Digital Transformation. Paper accepted at the 79the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM), Boston, Massachusetts, USA. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.13650abstract
- Weber, E., Krehl, E.-H., Büttgen, M., & Schweikert, K. (2019). The Digital Leadership Framework: Insights into New Leadership Roles Facing Digital Transformation. Paper accepted at the 19th Annual Conference of the European Academy of Management (EURAM), Lisbon, Portugal.
- Weber, E., Krehl, E.-H., Büttgen, M. (2018). Is Leadership in the Digital Age Female? Poster presented at the conference Frauen in der digitalen Zukunft: Stereotype durchbrechen, Munich, Germany.
- Weber, E., Krehl, E.-H., & Büttgen, M. (2018). Digital Leadership Style - Insights into a New Leadership Style Facing Digital Transformation. Paper accepted at the conference of the Commission Personnel Management /Wissenschaftliche Kommission Personal) of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB), Munich, Germany.
