Ready or Not: Managers’ and Employees’ Different Perceptions of Digital Readiness

What is it about?

Shared beliefs on digital readiness among management and employees are a precursor to successfully guide and implement organizational change. There is, however, little examination of how digital knowledge and skills are distributed among managers and employees, or whether their perceptions of digital readiness systematically differ. The findings of a survey of the banking industry reveal that, while there are similar perceptions of attitude and empowerment toward change, perceptions of individual readiness, competences, and innovation barriers differ significantly. This research advances the framework of change readiness toward digital readiness with theoretical as well as practical implications for digital transformation management.

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Why is it important?

------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Academic Scholarship ------------------------------------------------------- The findings contribute to change management literature by expanding the change readiness concept with the digital aspect. The study adds tech-specific challenges, attitudes, and capabilities, that are necessary for digital transformation, and proposes a digital readiness framework as a specific change readiness scenario. The authors demonstrate the discrepancy between managers’ and employees’ perceptions, which expands our knowledge about different perceptions of organizational target groups that are relevant within the change context on an individual and organizational level. ------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Management Practice ------------------------------------------------------- Managers have to be aware that their perceptions may not resonate with the employees’ perceptions. Having this in mind, they can adapt better strategies, manage expectations accordingly, address discrepancies, and identify and tailor digital training needs. The practical implications from the encountered results recommend three areas of action: managers should foster their own individual digital readiness and enable employees to extend their digital competence, top managers should be aware of their special role and of differences in perception that exist compared to middle and lower management levels, and address differences accordingly, and managers need to take care of the necessary firm capabilities to overcome cultural barriers and speed up the transformation process. ---------------------------- Author Perspective ---------------------------- Drawn from the authors´ practical experience as top managers and and the scientific research background for many years we acknowledged digital readiness of companies is getting more and more important for managers of all levels and different kinds of firms and branches. But only little research so far covers perceptions of digital readiness and their differences between managers and employees, which are important to know and which should be addressed by managers to ensure future business success. The authors therefore we interested in exploring the differences in perceptions that exist to enhance our knowledge, spur the academic discussion and develop practical implications.