Identification of Digital Leadership Competencies in the Digital Age

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract

Background: Leaders in the digital age should adjust themselves to new technologies and ways of communication to lead organizations effectively in this era. This needs leaders to develop new skills and abilities.
Aim: This study was carried out with the aim of identifying the competencies required for digital leadership in the context of the digital era.
Method: The present study is applied in terms of its purpose and follows a qualitative approach based on a narrative review method. It was conducted in four stages: implementing search strategies, collecting scientific documents, selecting and screening the documents, and finally analyzing them. Based on this process, 20 documents were chosen and analyzed. For data analysis, the open coding method (111 codes), axial coding (6 codes), and finally the selective coding-which represents the competencies of digital leadership-were utilized.
Results: The results of the research showed that digital leadership competencies are reflected in six dimensions, which include: 1. Individual competencies, such as resilience and flexibility, curiosity, being proactive, self-awareness, agility, lifelong learning, initiative, autonomy, and future-oriented thinking.2. Social/ interpersonal competencies in digital leadership, including building trust, reinforcing trust, digital communication, participation and equal behavior towards all, cultural competence and cultural awareness, ensuring privacy protection, and fostering a digital culture.
Conclusions: In the digital era, leadership and leadership competencies represent fundamental elements of organizational success. Leadership, as a complex organizational process, has increasingly been influenced by the advent of digital technologies in recent years. Consequently, the role of leaders has evolved in response to these technological advancements, and the development of digital leadership competencies has emerged as a strategic challenge for organizations. Therefore, it is recommended that organizations prioritize the enhancement of digital leadership skills and competencies to foster sustainable growth and long-term success.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Adie, B. U., Tate, M., & Valentine, E. (2024). Digital leadership in the public sector: A scoping review and outlook. International Review of Public Administration, 29(1), 42-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2024.2323847
Anamaria, J. (2023). Digital leadership competencies: A systematic literature review. Review of International Comparative Management, 24(1), 69-77. https://ideas.repec.org/a/rom/rmcimn/v24y2023i1p69-77.html
Attar, M., & Abdul-Kareem, A. (2020). The role of agile leadership in organisational agility. In Emerald Publishing Limited eBooks (pp. 171-191). https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-380-920201011
Baumeister ,Roy F& Leary ,Mark R. (1997).Writing Narrative Literature Reviews.Review of General Psychology Vol. 1, No. 3, 311-320. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.1.
Benitez, J., Arenas, A., Castillo, A., & Esteves, J. (2022). Impact of digital leadership capability on innovation performance: The role of platform digitization capability. Information & Management, 59(2), 103590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2022.103590
Chansukree, P., Sagarik, D., & Cho, W. (2022). Public employee use of social media at work: Competency, collaboration, and communication of workplace policy. Public Personnel Management, 51(3), 330-354. https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221098737
Chatterjee, S., Chaudhuri, R., Vrontis, D., & Giovando, G. (2023). Digital workplace and organization performance: Moderating role of digital leadership capability. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 8(1), 100334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2023.100334
Clarke, A. (2019). Digital government units: What are they, and what do they mean for digital era public management renewal? International Public Management Journal, 23(3), 358-379. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2019.1686447
Eberl, J. K., & Drews, P. (2021). Digital leadership- mountain or molehill? A literature review. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, 223-237. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86800-0_17
Fatima, T., Masood, A., Majeed, M., & Ali, M. U. (2021). Impact of Digital Leadership on open Innovation: A moderating serial mediation model. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2021(1), 13398. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2021.13398abstract
Frank, A. G., Mendes, G. H., Ayala, N. F., & Ghezzi, A. (2019). Servitization and industry 4.0 convergence in the digital transformation of product firms: A business model innovation perspective. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 141, 341-351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.01.014
García, J. M. G., García-Carmona, M., Torres, J. M. T., & Fernández, P. M. (2021). Analysis of digital competence of educators (digcompedu) in teacher trainees: The context of melilla, spain. Technology Knowledge and Learning, 28(2), 585-612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-021-09546-x
Gilli, K., Nippa, M., & Knappstein, M. (2022). Leadership competencies for digital transformation: An exploratory content analysis of job advertisements. German Journal of Human Resource Management Zeitschrift Für Personalforschung, 37(1), 50-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022221087252
Hamzah, N. H., Nasir, M. K. M., & Wahab, J. A. (2021). The effects of principals’ digital leadership on teachers’ digital teaching during the covid-19 pandemic in malaysia. Journal of Education and e-Learning Research, 8(2), 216-221. https://doi.org/10.20448/journal.509.2021.82.216.221
Kane, G. C., Phillips, A. N., Copulsky, J. R., & Andrus, G. R. (2019). The technology fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11661.001.0001
Karakose, T., Polat, H., & Papadakis, S. (2021). Examining teachers’ perspectives on school principals’ digital leadership roles and technology capabilities during the covid-19 pandemic. Sustainability, 13(23), 13448. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313448
Klein, M. (2020). Leadership characteristics in the era of digital transformation. Business and Management Studies an International Journal, 8(1), 883-902. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v8i1.1441
Koponen, J., Julkunen, S., Laajalahti, A., Turunen, M., and Spitzberg, B. (2023). Work characteristics needed by middle managers when leading AI-integrated service teams. J. Serv. Res. 12:462. https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705231220462
Kusanke, K., Kendziorra, J., Pilgenröder, S., & Winkler, T. J. (2023). Developing digital leadership skills for public sector leaders. HMD Praxis Der Wirtschaftsinformatik, 61(1), 202-219. https://doi.org/10.1365/s40702-023-01026-3
Makasi, T., Nili, A., Desouza, K., & Tate, M. (2022). Public service values and chatbots in the publicsector: Reconciling designer efforts and user expectations. In Proceedings of the 55th HawaiiInternational Conference on System Sciences (pp. 2334-2343). University of Hawaii at Manoa. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/227467/
Masrur, M. (2021). Digital leadership to improve the pedagogical competence of university english lecturers in samarinda. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 12(4), 424-446. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/220457/
Mayer, C., Sivatheerthan, T., Mütze-Niewöhner, S., & Nitsch, V. (2023). Sharing leadership behaviors in virtual teams: Effects of shared leadership behaviors on team member satisfaction and productivity. Team Performance Management, 29(1/2), 90-112. https://doi.org/10.1108/tpm-07-2022-0054
Mihardjo, W., & Rukmana, R. (2018). Does digital leadership impact directly or indirectly on dynamic capability: Case on Indonesia Telecommunication industry in digital transformation? The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2, 832-841. https://doi.org/10.32861/jssr.spi2.832.841
Munsamy, M., Dhanpat, N., & Barkhuizen, E. N. (2023). The development and validation of a digital leadership competency scale. Acta Commercii, 23(1), a1057. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v23i1.1057
Philip, J., Gilli, K., & Knappstein, M. (2023). Identifying key leadership competencies for digital transformation: Evidence from a cross-sectoral Delphi study of global managers. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 44(3), 392-406. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-02-2022-0063
Purnomo, V., Tejasukmana, S., & Juniarti, J. (2021). Pengaruh digital leadership terhadap kinerja perusahaan startup di jawa timur. Business Accounting Review, 9(2), 112-134.‏ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=8133006857692262654&hl=fa&oi=scholarr
Oberer, B., & Erkollar, A. (2018). Leadership 4.0: Digital leaders in the age of industry 4.0. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 7(4), 404-412. https://doi.org/10.33844/ijol.2018.60332
Rüth, R., & Netzer, T. (2020). The key elements of cultural intelligence as a driver for digital leadership success. Leadership Education Personality an Interdisciplinary Journal, 2(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1365/s42681-019-00005-x
Sasmoko, S., Mihardjo, L. W. W., Alamsjah, F., & Elidjen, E. (2019). Dynamic capability: The effect of digital leadership on fostering innovation capability based on market orientation. Management Science Letters,9(10), 1633-1644. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.5.024
Skantz-Aberg, E., Lantz-Andersson, A., Lundin, M., & Williams, P. (2022). Teachers’ professional digital competence: an overview of conceptualisations in the literature. Cogent Education, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2022.2063224
Sturm, R. E., Vera, D., & Crossan, M. (2016). The entanglement of leader character and leader competence and its impact on performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(3), 349-366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.11.007
Tigre, F. B., Henriques, P. L., & Curado, C. (2024). The digital leadership emerging construct: A multi-method approach. Management Review Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-023-00395-9
Toth, I., Heinنnen, S., and Blomqvist, K. (2020). Freelancing on digital work platforms roles of virtual community trust and work engagement on person-job fit. VINE J. Inf. Knowl. Manag. Syst. 50, 553–567. https://doi.org/10.1108/vjikms-12-2018-0124
Turk, A. (2023). Digital leadership role in developing business strategy suitable for digital transformation. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1066180. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1066180
Valentine, G. T. a. D. E. (2023). Information systems consulting: A practice guide for is consultants and business analysts. Dr Greg Timbrell and Dr Elizabeth Valentine. https://books.google.com/books/about/Information_Systems_Consulting.html?id=SH3JEAAAQBAJ
Van Wart, M., Roman, A., Wang, X., & Liu, C. (2017). Operationalizing the definition of e-leadership: Identifying the elements of e-leadership. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 85(1), 80-97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852316681446
Wilkesmann, M., & Wilkesmann, U. (2018). Industry 4.0– organizing routines or innovations? VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, 48(2), 238-254. https://doi.org/10.1108/vjikms-04-2017-0019
Yusof, M. R., Yaakob, M. F. M., & Ibrahim, M. Y. (2019). Digital leadership among school leaders in malaysia. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 8(9), 1481-1485. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijitee.i8221.078919
Qualitative Research in Behavioral Sciences (QRBS)
Volume 3, Issue 2 - Serial Number 6
February 2025
Pages 1-18

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 29 October 2024
  • Revise Date: 12 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 07 February 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics