Digital leadership

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Digital leadership is a scientific approach to defining the tasks and tools of leadership in times of digitization in general and in phases of transformation into digitization in particular. It was first developed and mentioned by Utho Creusen at the Catholic University of Eichstätt / Ingolstadt in connection with the investigation of leadership in start-ups. Other authors use the term Leadership 4.0 to describe a comparable leadership concept.

Leadership approaches

Graphic management approaches : start-up, digital company, digital transformation

A distinction is made between the areas of leadership in start-ups , leadership in digital companies and leadership in digital transformation , and conclusions are drawn for the various management approaches (see graphic management approaches ). The starting point is the realization that digitally leading companies achieve higher sales, earnings and company values ​​depending on their digital readiness. The digital technologies and their effects on the organization and productivity of people were examined with the result that digital technologies fundamentally differ from all other technologies due to free reproducibility, unlimited transferability and accuracy of the copies and thus will trigger a new technological revolution. This development is already influencing all industries and is creating new competitors almost every day.

Effects

Graphic effects : customer need design, work design, business design

Digital leadership first had an impact on work design (see graphic effects , work design). Numerous companies are experimenting with flexible working hours, flexible and mobile workplaces, teamwork without personal presence, etc. In addition to work design, management and structural principles of organizations are increasingly being reconsidered. This leads to a wave of models of networking, openness, participation and agility, all of which are subjected to an analysis with regard to the effects on productivity and employee satisfaction. This again triggers discussions about the differences between management and leadership. Based on the theories of John P. Kotter , management is assigned the task of reducing complexity, while leadership is assigned the function of change.

One of the core elements of digital leadership (according to Creusen) is the further development of participatory leadership models. This achieves greater degrees of speed, agility and flexibility in decisions. The aim of these measures is to prevent disruptive business models from competitors or at least to be able to react to them more quickly (see graphic effects , business design). In this context, digital leadership research also examines the conditions and consequences of disruption (and thus cannibalization) itself. Methodologically, there are clear intersections with the positive leadership approach with the development of strengths, the formulation of long-term visions and the creation of enthusiasm through flow. Another core element of the digital leadership approach is the pronounced customer orientation (see graphic effects , customer need design). This is about creating a deep understanding of customer benefits through techniques such as Design Thinking (disseminated by the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam), the rapid creation of prototypes to test customer reactions (Minimal Viable Product) and rapid sorting out and Further development of business models (fail-fast). It is also about the use of big data to generate intensive customer contacts by processing customer data with algorithms to enable predictions of customer behavior.

literature

  • Becker, Thomas / Knop, Carsten (eds.): New digital territory - Why Germany's managers are now revolutionaries . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-09691-5 .
  • Buhse, Willms: Management by Internet: New management models for companies in times of digital transformation . Plassen Verlag, Kulmbach 2014, ISBN 978-3-86470-172-6 .
  • Geschwill, Roland / Nieswandt, Martina: Lateral Management - The Success Principle for Companies in the Digital Age . Springer Verlag, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-11131-1 .
  • Heinemann, Gerrit / Gehrckens, H. Matthias / Wolters, Uly J. (Eds.): Digital transformation or digital disruption in retail . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-13503-4 .
  • Keese C .: Silicon Germany - How we create the digital transformation . Albrecht Knaus Verlag, Munich 2016.
  • Kreutzer, Ralf / Neugebauer, Tim / Pattloch, Anette: Digital Business Leadership: Digital Transformation - Business Model Innovation - Agile Organization - Change Management . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-11913-3 .
  • Patel, Keyur / McCarthy, Mary Pat: Digital Transformation: The Essentials of E-Business Leadership . McGraw-Hill Inc., New York 2000, ISBN 978-0-07-136408-9 .
  • Ries, Eric: Lean Startup: Founding a company quickly, without risk and successfully . 4th edition. Redline Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86881-333-3 .
  • Schallmo, Daniel: Transform digitally now: How to successfully digitally transform your business model . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-14568-2 .
  • Weinreich, Uwe: Lean Digitization - Digital Transformation through Agile Management . Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-662-50501-4 .
  • Westermann, Georg / Bonnet, Didier / McAfee, Andrew: Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation . Harvard Business Review Press, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-62527-247-8 .
  • Moskaliuk, Johannes: Advice for successful Leadership 4.0 . Springer, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-23708-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Moskaliuk: Leadership 4.0 | Buzzword or an important trend for personnel and organizational development? In: wissensdialoge.de. April 11, 2017, accessed December 5, 2018 (German).
  2. ↑ Westermann et al., 2012
  3. ^ Brynjolfsson / McAfee, 2014
  4. ↑ cf. also the lean start-up approach according to Eric Ries , 2015
  5. ↑ cf. Creusen