Preparing Workplaces for Digital Transformation: An Integrative Review and Framework of Multi-Level Factors

Challenges and Opportunities in Recruiting Research Participants Using Facebook: Lessons Learned from an Exemplar Study

BACKGROUND

Facebook is a prominent social medial platform frequently used for business marketing. Researchers are starting to recognize the utility of this platform for developing research awareness, information dissemination, and more recently participant recruitment.

PURPOSE

This paper will provide an overview of methods used in Facebook recruitment through an exemplar study. It will highlight successes and challenges and provide insight into future opportunities for its' use.

METHODS

Two methods of Facebook recruitment are outlined in this paper: the use of Facebook groups and paid advertising. A step-by-step guide highlights how researchers can implement these specific methods of Facebook recruitment.

RESULTS

Facebook was successfully utilized to recruit participants in the exemplar study. Recruitment was completed over a period of 82 days with a total cost of $157.09 Canadian dollars.

CONCLUSION

Facebook is a viable method of recruiting research participants. This method can be cost-effective, timely, and efficient in comparison to traditional research recruitment methods. However, one must balance the benefits and challenges of this type of recruitment.

Developing the digital transformation skills framework: A systematic literature review approach

BACKGROUND

Digital transformation (DT) involves integrating digital technologies into organizations to improve productivity, efficiency, and quality. Investing in the workforce's skillsets is essential for successful DT. However, it remains unclear which skillsets are essential.

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to identify and define the essential skillsets needed for exploiting the full potential of DT, and to consolidate the identified skills into a comprehensive framework of DT skills.

METHOD

A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA approach for selecting studies. This led to the selection of 36 articles that were examined using thematic analysis for identifying and consolidating skills into a framework.

RESULTS

The Digital Transformation Skills Framework (DTSF) was developed, which contains six overarching skillsets and 44 underlying skills. The framework covers key skillsets in the areas of digital work, entrepreneurship, evidence-based work, collaboration, communication, and adaptation.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

The DTSF offers a comprehensive understanding of essential skills for today's evolving organizations, addressing a critical gap in existing literature. It is valuable for organizations and HR professionals, serving as a foundation for re- and upskilling initiatives. Ongoing research should expand the framework to include domain-specific DT skills and emerging digital technologies.

How Does Digital Leadership Foster Employee Innovative Behavior: A Cognitive-Affective Processing System Perspective

Employee innovative behavior is crucial for organizations to engage in innovative activities and gain competitive advantages in the context of digital transformation. Despite many studies having focused on the relationship between leadership and employee innovative behavior, the role of digital leadership and the underlying mechanisms for employee innovative behavior remain unclear. Using the cognitive-affective processing system framework, the study investigated the dual mediating role of psychological empowerment and affective commitment between digital leadership and employee innovative behavior and the moderating role of a proactive personality in such relationships. Employing data from 359 employees, the study conducted structure equation modeling to examine the hypotheses. The results show that digital leadership influences employee innovative behavior through psychological empowerment but not affective commitment. Furthermore, a proactive personality does not moderate the direct effect of digital leadership on psychological empowerment and affective commitment or the indirect effect of digital leadership on employee innovative behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Stop (to Work) and Go (to Recover) During Mandatory Work From Home: A Three-Wave Study

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers have been forced to work from home. In this situation, the boundaries between work and private life have become particularly blurred, and recovering from work was even more difficult than in traditional times, with negative consequences for workers' health. Among the psychological experiences that might underlie the recovery process, mastery played a crucial role as people sought new stimuli and challenging situations. However, there are few articles that have explored the role of this specific recovery experience, its antecedents, and the health consequences under conditions of work from home. Therefore, in this multiwave study, we aimed to investigate the role of mastery as a mediator between supervisor support and insomnia problems. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and had a three-wave design. A convenience sample of 130 employees (67% women) completed an online questionnaire. Hypotheses were tested using a three-wave autoregressive cross-lagged panel model. According to the results, supervisor support at Time 1 was positively related to mastery at Time 2, which in turn showed a negative association with insomnia at Time 3. The results demonstrated that mastery experiences have played a crucial role during COVID-19 mandatory work from home, which points to some potential implications for workers' health in the adoption of teleworking beyond the emergency situation.

Artificial intelligence adoption in extended HR ecosystems: enablers and barriers. An abductive case research

Artificial intelligence (AI) has disrupted modern workplaces like never before and has induced digital workstyles. These technological advancements are generating significant interest among HR leaders to embrace AI in human resource management (HRM). Researchers and practitioners are keen to investigate the adoption of AI in HRM and the resultant human-machine collaboration. This study investigates HRM specific factors that enable and inhibit the adoption of AI in extended HR ecosystems and adopts a qualitative case research design with an abductive approach. It studies three well-known Indian companies at different stages of AI adoption in HR functions. This research investigates key enablers such as optimistic and collaborative employees, strong digital leadership, reliable HR data, specialized HR partners, and well-rounded AI ethics. The study also examines barriers to adoption: the inability to have a timely pulse check of employees' emotions, ineffective collaboration of HR employees with digital experts as well as external HR partners, and not embracing AI ethics. This study contributes to the theory by providing a model for AI adoption and proposes additions to the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology in the context of AI adoption in HR ecosystems. The study also contributes to the best-in-class industry HR practices and digital policy formulation to reimagine workplaces, promote harmonious human-AI collaboration, and make workplaces future-ready in the wake of massive digital disruptions.

Measuring digital transformation stress at the workplace-Development and validation of the digital transformation stress scale

Despite the unquestionable advantages of digital transformation (DT) in organizations, the very process of DT could have an impact on the level of stress of the employees. The negative effects of the digital transformation process can be observed during the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) solutions. They are further enhanced by the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, as digital transformation has accelerated to allow for remote work. Herein we distinguish between general stress at the workplace and the very specific type of stress, namely digital transformation stress (DTS). We assumed that this type of stress appears when rapid implementation of ICT solutions is introduced with time pressure and incertitude of further results. To quantify this phenomenon, we developed a new self-report scale-the Digital Transformation Stress Scale (DTSS), measuring employees' stress stemming from the process of digital transformation in organizations. The psychometric validity of the scale was evaluated in two studies: Study1 conducted at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (N = 229) and Study 2 in 2021 (N = 558), after a year of mostly remote work. The results confirmed good reliability with Cronbach's Alpha α = .91 in Study 1 and α = .90 in Study 2 and assumed unidimensional factorial validity of the scale in both studies. All items of the scale had good difficulty and discrimination values evaluated in Item Response Theory, i.e., IRT approach. The scale showed predicted convergent validity as the indicator of the digital transformation stress moderately correlated with general stress at work. Moreover, the assumption that even employees with high ICT skills could be affected by DTS was confirmed. Additionally, the results indicated that digital transformation stress was significantly higher among employees who reported both issues: ongoing digital solutions projects at the workplace and high impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their work. The scale could be used in future work on measuring and counteracting digital transformation stress at the workplace.

Network embeddedness, digital transformation, and enterprise performance-The moderating effect of top managerial cognition

Under the new background of the explosive growth of digital economy and the deep integration of real economy, how to improve the performance level through digital transformation has become the key for enterprises to achieve high-quality development. Based on the embeddedness theory and the upper echelons theory, this paper studies the logic and mechanism of network embeddedness affecting enterprise performance, in order to describe the pre-motivations and complete influencing paths of digital transformation affecting enterprise performance, and promote enterprises to achieve high-quality development by means of digital transformation. Taking the middle and senior managers of 239 enterprises as the research objects, this paper applies hierarchical regression, bootstrap and other analysis methods for empirical test, and draws the following conclusions: (1) Relational embeddedness and cognitive embeddedness have a positive impact on digital transformation, while structural embeddedness has no significant impact on digital transformation. (2) Digital transformation has a significant positive impact on enterprise performance. (3) Digital transformation plays a significant mediating role between relational embeddedness, cognitive embeddedness and enterprise performance. (4) In the context of top managerial cognition, cognitive embeddedness can better improve enterprise performance through digital transformation. These results extend the previous literature on digital transformation, proves that digital transformation has a positive effect on enterprise performance. Meanwhile, top managerial cognition is conducive to shaping the dynamic capability of enterprises, and thus plays an important moderating role in the influence path of digital transformation on enterprise performance. This study further affirms the important role of top managerial cognition, which is conducive to enriching enterprises' digital practices and improving enterprise performance.

Digital workplace: A conceptual model for better performance in the IT industry

BACKGROUND: Designing the future workplace as flexible and location independent is one of the actions every leader can take for better performance at individual or organizational levels. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to provide a deep understanding of the concept of a digital workplace, identifies its key components/digital tools from selected IT companies, create a digital workplace as a conceptual model and analyze how it (DWP) impacts the performance of the organization and its employees in the IT industry. METHODS: The survey was conducted through a structured questionnaire from 500 IT employees of the top 15 IT software service companies in Bengaluru. The percentage method was adopted to analyze the data to create a proposed conceptual model. RESULTS: The digital workplace, a conceptual model, was created based on the literature reviewed and the data collected from respondents of IT companies. The conceptual model included Digital workplace, Employees Efficiency, Engagement, Digital Competency, Employee, and organizational performance. The results showed that the digital workplace has a strong relationship with major digital components, which positively impact the organization’s performance in the IT industry. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed conceptual model showed how the digital workplace and other factors impact the organisation’s performance in the IT industry.

Influence of algorithmic management practices on workplace well-being – evidence from European organisations

Purpose

Existing literature on algorithmic management practices – defined as autonomous data-driven decision making in people's management by adoption of self-learning algorithms and artificial intelligence – suggests complex relationships with employees' well-being in the workplace. While the use of algorithms can have positive impacts on people-related decisions, they may also adversely influence job autonomy, perceived justice and – as a result – workplace well-being. Literature review revealed a significant gap in empirical research on the nature and direction of these relationships. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to analyse how algorithmic management practices directly influence workplace well-being, as well as investigating its relationships with job autonomy and total rewards practices.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual model of relationships between algorithmic management practices, job autonomy, total rewards and workplace well-being has been formulated on the basis of literature review. Proposed model has been empirically verified through confirmatory analysis by means of structural equation modelling (SEM CFA) on a sample of 21,869 European organisations, using data collected by Eurofound and Cedefop in 2019, with the focus of investigating the direct and indirect influence of algorithmic management practices on workplace well-being.

Findings

This research confirmed a moderate, direct impact of application of algorithmic management practices on workplace well-being. More importantly the authors found out that this approach has an indirect influence, through negative impact on job autonomy and total rewards practices. The authors observed significant variation in the level of influence depending on the size of the organisation, with the decreasing impacts of algorithmic management on well-being and job autonomy for larger entities.

Originality/value

While the influence of algorithmic management on various workplace practices and effects is now widely discussed, the empirical evidence – especially for traditional work contexts, not only gig economy – is highly limited. The study fills this gap and suggests that algorithmic management – understood as an automated decision-making vehicle – might not always lead to better, well-being focused, people management in organisations. Academic studies and practical applications need to account for possible negative consequences of algorithmic management for the workplace well-being, by better reflecting complex nature of relationships between these variables.

Do an Organization’s Digital Transformation and Employees’ Digital Competence Catalyze the Use of Telepresence?

Rapid changes in the external environment are increasing interest in digital transformation. In particular, the recent breakout of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 has required certain companies to restrict physical exchanges among their members. As a result, companies must strive to maintain productivity and performance by supporting business exchange activities through online platforms. A metaverse technology that supports individuals’ exchange activities in a virtual space based on 3D technology has recently attracted attention from companies. However, as previous studies related to the metaverse have focused on strengthening personalized content and services, additional research is needed in order to understand the metaverse’s effects at the organizational level. This study aims to present the conditions for strengthening the motivation to use the metaverse from the perspective of organizations and members who have applied the metaverse in the workplace on a trial basis. In this study, an online questionnaire was conducted targeting workers of organizations with a history of using the metaverse for business, and the hypotheses were tested using 304 valid samples. As a result of the analysis, it was found that telepresence, a characteristic of the metaverse, influences the intention to continue using the metaverse through informativeness, interactivity, and enjoyment. In addition, the shared goal of the organization’s digital transformation moderated the influence relationship between telepresence and an individual’s motivations, and an individual’s digital competence moderated the influence relationship between motivation and the intention of continuous use. This study suggests a digital transformation strategy for an organization in terms of suggesting ways to strengthen the motivations for the use of the metaverse of employees in the organization.

Start-Up’s Road to Disruptive Innovation in the Digital Era: The Interplay Between Dynamic Capabilities and Business Model Innovation

The emergence and infusion of digital technologies bring greater chances for start-ups to conduct disruptive innovation through digital entrepreneurship. Despite the existed business practices, the happening mechanism of start-up’s disruptive innovation in the digital economy context remains unclear. This study aims to understand the evolutionary mechanism and fulfillment path start-ups’ disruptive innovation in the digital era. The longitudinal case study is conducted for a Chinese Internet start-up that successfully launched disruptive innovation under the digital economy background. Adopting a process perspective, this study analyzes the evolutionary phases of digital disruptive innovation. Moreover, this study identifies the digital technologies adoption, dynamic capabilities deployment, and business model innovation as the key pillars, and their interactions. Finally, this study induces and proposes its evolution mechanism and fulfillment path models. This study enriches the research scope of disruptive innovation and digital entrepreneurship. This study can offer theoretical guidance for the start-ups’ disruptive innovation in the digital era, and practical implications for implementing a digital catching-up strategy.

Let’s Get Physical: Physical Activity as a Team Intervention at Work

The purpose of this article is to conceptualize a novel theoretical occurrence—team physical activity (PA)—and its relevance for researchers and organizations. By building a testable model of the consequences and contingencies of team PA, we integrate the science of teamwork with the scholarly domain of employee health and well-being. Hence, we clarify the construct of team PA, present a three-dimensional typology, and outline a model drawing on neuroscience, positive organizational behavior, and teams research. Our propositions and subsequent discussion proffer an outline of potential benefits for organizations when they increase the utility and frequency of team PA. We also suggest ways in which researchers can advance scholarship in this area.

Research on Successful Factors and Influencing Mechanism of the Digital Transformation in SMEs

In the era of the digital economy, digital transformation (DT) has become a new approach for firms to gain competitive advantages in a context of intense and dynamic market competition. Companies in almost all industries have undergone or are currently undergoing DT. Due to limited resources and capabilities, the digitalization process of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is relatively slow, so it is critical to ascertain the key factors and paths that affect the success of DT for SMEs to optimize the allocation of resources. However, there is very little research on the DT of SMEs. In response to this literature gap, the purpose of this study is to discover the key factors of the DT in SMEs and explore their interaction mechanisms. From a holistic perspective, this study has identified six key factors from three dimensions of technology, organization, and environment, and based on the resource-based view and resource-dependence theory, constructed an action mechanism model. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data collected from 180 SMEs in China. The results show that technological and environmental factors have a positive impact on organizational capabilities, and then promote the success of DT of SMEs. Organizational capabilities play an intermediary role in the influence of technological and environmental factors on DT. In addition, employee skills positively moderate the relationship between organizational capabilities and the success of DT. This study contributes to the conceptual framework and management implications in the DT field. Our study provides practitioners with profound insights into the enterprise’s DT and suggests that enterprises attach importance to the improvement of organizational capabilities, and use strategy and talents as important resources to promote the success of enterprise DT.

A Digital Health Service for Elderly People with Balance Disorders and Risk of Falling: A Design Science Approach

In this study, a design science research methodology was used aiming at designing, implementing and evaluating a digital health service to complement the provision of healthcare for elderly people with balance disorders and risk of falling. An explanatory sequential mixed methods study allowed to identify and explore the dissatisfaction with electronic medical records and the opportunity for using digital health solutions. The suggested recommendations helped to elaborate and develop “BALANCE”, a digital service implemented on the METHIS platform, which was recently validated for remote monitoring of chronic patients in primary healthcare. “BALANCE” provides clinical and interactive data, questionnaire pre and post-balance rehabilitation, tutorial videos with balance exercises and patient-recorded videos of the exercises. This digital service was demonstrated, including five elderly patients with clinical recommendations for balance rehabilitation at home. Finally, the authors conducted two focus groups with the participants and their caregivers as well as with physicians. The focus groups aimed at exploring their satisfaction level, needs of adjustment in the “BALANCE” service and strategies for applicability. The digital healthcare service evaluation revealed a significant potential for clinical applicability of this digital solution for elderly people with balance disorders and risk of falling.

Determinants for Successful Digital Transformation

The proliferation of innovative digital technology is changing the industrial ecosystem; thus, companies should have the ability to adapt to the new environment. However, the success rate of digital transformation (DT) is still low, and there is a need to know its success determinant factors. This study aims to examine factors that affect DT’s personal and social acceptance and empirically verify whether they actually affect it. Success factors and risk factors affecting the adoption of DT were identified from the literature review. The study collected data from 100 employees working for Korean financial institutions to statistically analyze and identify the determinant factors affecting successful DT. The results show that planned behavioral factors and innovative characteristics have a positive effect on DT acceptance attitude and that DT acceptance attitude has a positive effect on personal acceptance of DT. This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions. It distinguishes acceptance of innovation in two ways: individual acceptance and social acceptance, which has not been done in previous studies. It presents useful insights and understanding for those interested in transforming their organization with new technology by suggesting successful DT determinant factors.

Supervisor-Subordinate Age Dissimilarity and Its Impact on Supervisory Ratings of Employability: Does Supportive Learning Context Make a Difference?

Status incongruence resulting from a supervisor who is younger than their subordinate potentially leads to age stereotyping of employees. This article investigates the relationship between age difference and supervisory ratings of five competence-based measures of subordinate employability (Occupational Expertise, Anticipation/Optimisation, Personal Flexibility, Corporate Sense, and Balance). In addition, we consider the buffering role of a supportive learning context which allows older workers access to learning resources. Learning context is represented by duration of the supervisory relationship, perceived organizational learning climate and participation in, and application of, training and development. Using 295 dyads of employees and their direct supervisors in a Dutch building company, findings show that age dissimilarity reflecting status incongruence was related to lower supervisory ratings of Occupational Expertise (job-related competence) and Corporate Sense (social/organizational competence) regardless of learning context. Longer duration relationships exacerbated, rather than buffered, the age difference effect on some types of supervisory ratings. The implications of these findings for age stereotyping with regard to employability are considered.

The association between digitalization and mental health: The mediating role of wellbeing at work

The study aims to measure the mediating relationship of wellbeing at work between digitalization (IT infrastructure, IT business spanning, and IT proactive stance) and their effect on mental health. The study uses primary data collection techniques to gather data and used purposive sampling to analyze the data. The sample size of the study is 349 respondents. The research uses Smart PLS software to measure the relationship through bootstrapping and algorithms. The study finds a significant positive mediating role of wellbeing between digitalization (IT infrastructure, IT business spanning, and IT proactive stance) and their effect on mental health. The study outcomes are helpful for managers and policymakers.

Are you there? Presence in collaborative distance work

Already before the pandemic, digitally mediated collaborative work and communication were perceived as challenging. We investigate the attitudes towards emerging technologies and for transforming practises in workplaces. The focus lies on understanding the readiness for appropriating emotional tracking on presence and support for collaboration. The research-based design framework allowed to combine the various perspectives of the transdisciplinary team. Methods included participatory design, design thinking, contextual inquiry and prototype testing for enhancing presence while working with shared objects in video conferencing to explore the appropriation of tools. The findings revealed four indications: 1) awareness of interlocutors’ presence during synchronous communication is crucial. 2)  Emotion and behaviour tracking raises concerns about privacy and personal control over what is displayed to others, and technology could be simpler non-distracting the work at hand.  3) The prototype was found to enhance the feeling of presence without disturbing work at hand, and 4) appropriation requires a step-by-step approach.

Examining Teachers’ Perspectives on School Principals’ Digital Leadership Roles and Technology Capabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The current study investigates the perspectives and experiences of teachers regarding their school principal’s digital leadership roles and technology capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted using a case study-based qualitative approach, and with a study group consisting of 89 teachers holding a Master’s degree. Maximum diversity sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods, was preferred in the determination of the study group, and the data obtained from the research were analyzed through content analysis. The five main themes determined based on the perceptions and experiences of the participants are listed as: “Digital technology usage, support for the digital transformation, support for technology-based professional development, support for digital learning culture, and digital leadership skills”. The results of the research revealed that the level of use of digital technologies by school principals during the COVID-19 pandemic was perceived as adequate by teachers. In addition, it was determined that school principals support digital transformation and technology-based professional development in schools. Furthermore, within the scope of the research, it was determined that school principals contribute to the construction of a digital learning culture in schools. The results of the study revealed that school principals’ digital leadership skills were clustered under three categories: technology use, managerial skills, and individual skills. As a result, in order to realize digital transformation within the context of K-12 education, school principals must first demonstrate their digital leadership and actively support the establishment of a digital learning culture in their schools.

Technology Acceptance and Leadership 4.0: A Quali-Quantitative Study

With the rapid advancement of Industry 4.0, new technologies are changing the nature of work and organizations. Nevertheless, technology acceptance is still an open issue and research, and practice interventions should investigate its antecedents and implement actions in order to reduce the risks of resistance and foster acceptance and effective usage of the new tools and systems. This quali-quantitative study was aimed at exploring perceptions about Industry 4.0 and its transformations and investigating job antecedents of technology acceptance. Whilst not many studies in the literature on technology acceptance have considered workers’ well-being, in this study, its association with work engagement has also been examined. The qualitative study used focus groups to collect perceptions of 14 key roles in a company that was implementing Industry 4.0. In the same company, the quantitative study involved 263 employees who filled in a questionnaire. The results confirmed that both job resources, namely supervisor support and role clarity, were antecedents of technology acceptance, which, in turn, was associated with work engagement. This study provides useful suggestions for interventions aimed at foster technology acceptance and workers’ well-being in companies that are facing Industry 4.0 transformations. Particularly, investments in both leadership 4.0 development and communication programs are essential.