Two hypotheses are developed on the basis of the framework developed. Technological preferences of the public organization is the dependent variable depending upon the leadership that brings the digital transformation. Following hypotheses are developed including:
H1: Digital transformation can be brought to an organization through the changes in the leadership style
Ho: Digital transformation cannot be brought to an organization through the changes in the leadership style
H2: Leadership can address the different challenges through having clear technological preferences for bringing the digital transformation
Ho: Leadership can not address the different challenges through having clear technological preferences for bringing the digital transformation
Overall the technological preferences depend on the level of the digital transformation needed to be introduced. The leadership also has the freedom to make the selection for the preferred technology for bringing the digital transformation. The leadership overcomes the different challenges in the implementation of the new technology through providing effective training to the young talent, making the workforce more adaptive and ready to enhance their overall performance. Thus for the successful digital transformation it is needed to make the selection for the proper leadership style.
The public sector organizations need to deal with the different problems that result due to the changes in the technology. For example they need to create a balance between the introduction of the innovation and the maintenance of the effective governance along the regulation of different important matters, strategically as well as tactically. The public sector usually pay attention to resolve such kind of issues. In today’s technological era, there is the need to understand the different needs of the organizations as well as the employees’ attitudes which varies (Hong et.al., 2013; Kiser and Washington, 2015). It is needed that different organizations should maintain a proper balance between the different implemented technologies and the knowledge of the employees as well so that these could be supported by the employees. Still the technological changes and the digital transformation are considered as the difficult things to be implemented there are different challenges for the organizations for introducing new ICTs as well as making themselves suitable for the employees. In any organization, change introduced brings the challenges that are needed to be resolved by the leadership. The technological preferences of an organization depends on the leadership intending to bring the digital transformation and somehow it also depends on the overall operations of the organization and the availability of the resources that are needed to be managed by the leadership.
Digital transformation is considered as a change introduced by the technology on different levels of an organization that could include the exploitation of the technologies for bringing the overall improvement in the performance and processes. Through innovation, the different organizational practices can be transformed. Digital innovation is the combination of the digital technologies along the other components for bringing the overall improvement. In this era, digital transformation is considered to be important and hence the public sector is also paying attention towards it.
According to the framework, digital transformation can be challenging and needs to be managed by the leadership effectively. Saul Berman (2012) reviewed the digital transformation with respect to the business models thus encouraged leaders to emphasize on the different complementary activities along the use of digital technology for attaining advantages like the collaboration of the customers and the interaction, reshaping the values of the customers for the transformation of the whole system. Bounfour (2016) defined digital transformation as a new development that makes the use of the different artifacts, symbols and the systems of an organization and hence is an important aspect of the designed framework.
Digitalization allows the decision-making process to become faster from the different board decisions till the purchasing decisions of the consumers to purchase. The overall management supported by the digital transformation, can give rise to different challenges, usually among the different internal and the external resources, decision making in the organization and horizontal and vertical transfer of the power and the overall decision-making. The digitalization also impacts the integrity of a person, for example the mutual trust is the important factor while the selection of a business partner (Fitzgerald et.al., 2013).
With the increasing growth of the different digital technologies the organizational transformation is catalyzed in the past days (Yooet.al., 2012). This has enabled the organizations to make the use of new cases and integrate different new approaches and techniques for the facilitation of the different organizational activities (Fitzgerald et.al., 2013). The term transformation is related to the change in an organization with an overall impact on the different functions and the structures along the division of the power. So the companies need to align and introduce the change in their internal structure as well as in their business approach and thus it seems to be challenging foe the whole organization. With the introduction of the technology in such a change; an organization can attain the digital transformation that is executed and it is needed to develop a clear understanding related to the whole mechanism of digitization.
The different changes in the technology as well as the economy are the forces that are bringing the changes and thus the leadership needs to focus on the different approaches to lead in this particular condition. Nowadays, leadership needs to maintain quality along the performance, low cost as well as the overall efficiency for the different processes. There is the scarcity of the studies that have discussed the concepts of digitalization and the leadership and as discussed above about the digital transformation which involves the reshaping of the organizational structures as well as the practices (Berman & Marshall, 2012; Chew, 2015). In the framework, leadership is another important aspect and the independent variable upon which the preference of the organization relies as the leadership understands the preference of the organizations and take important steps according to the different needs of digital transformation.
The leadership practice and theories are seen to be having strong implications regarding the different capabilities along the implementation of the change (Collin et.al., 2015). Organizations that have focused on the higher drivers of productivity and the other factors of the performance are rare and it is seen that most of the organizations are those that are not successful in the complete implementation of the technologies and those that are successful to bring digital transformation are because of the leadership that has implemented the change successfully (Rogers, 2016; Westerman et.al., 2014).
Digital transformation includes the process of digitization and emphasize on the overall efficiency along the digital innovation that focus on enhancing the overall performance with all the digital capabilities (Yooet.al., 2012). Hence it also brings different challenges for the leadership. According to the framework the challenges developed as the result of digital transformation can be addressed by the leadership. With the increased digital transformation and the enhancement of the overall functions, digital transformation has played an important role in the past years and allow the use of new technologies as well and thus it brought a major impact. Whenever it is needed to initiate a change for the different structures as the business models then digital transformation plays a very important role in the whole process (Bounfour, 2014).
The capabilities of leadership play an important role for bringing the transformative vision, replenishing the energies of the employees through engaging them, understanding and building the technological leadership along the focus on the digital governance. The first two factors are considered by the leadership practices in the past. The digital governance is however something that enables the leadership to drive the different digital activities along the strategic vision and merging the practices of the IT Leaders with the current business (Hong et.al., 2013). Therefore the framework emphasized that leadership plays an important role in bringing the digital transformation as well as bringing the changes and resolving the different issues.
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