Digitalization and its Impact on the Future Role of SCM Executives in Talent Management – An International Cross‐Industry Delphi Study

Abstract

Business and EntrepreneurshipOpen access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. I n the field of supply chain management (SCM), attracting and developing appropriate talent is critical for achieving most SCM goals, as extensive skills are necessary to do the job properly. In order to ensure that future-proof talent can continue to emerge in this discipline, the role of SCM executives is extremely important. Although many studies have been conducted in the field of talent management (TM), the future role of SCM executives has been mostly neglected in research. The present empirical study addresses this gap, taking into consideration the fourth industrial revolution, as innovation in technology continues to drive significant changes in the SCM field. Aiming to investigate the extent to which increasing digitalization is influencing the future role of SCM executives, a Delphi study with 103 experts from industry, academics, and politics/associations was carried out. In order to identify meaningful topic clusters from the data, fuzzy c-means clustering was used. From an actor-network theory perspective, our results show that in some areas of TM, digitalization is leading to a strong fusion of SCM executives and digital technologies, as well as to a clear division of roles, in which either SCM leaders or technology will dominate in the future.

The interplay between relationships, technologies and organizational structures in enhancing supply chain resilience: empirical evidence from a Delphi study

“…The Delphi experts had an average expertise of 18.3 years in SCM, which is comparable with other Delphi studies of SCM (e.g. Wehrle et al, 2020). Furthermore, participants also self-assessed a high level of experience in SCM and SCRES (Figure 1).…”

“…For example, increasing volumes of information and applied technologies will create new demands on information technology (IT) and on technically skilled employees who work in SCM departments (Roßmann et al, 2018). This is supported by Wehrle et al (2020), as they offer empirical evidence that digitalization and technologies will strongly affect the future role of SCM executives. When digital technologies are dominating operative and repetitive SCM tasks such as the monitoring, reporting and management of data, they also enable the improvement of organizational performance and efficiency by reducing the number of employees or by bundling free work capacities into SCRESrelated tasks (Mart ınez-Caro et al, 2020).…”

A New Grey Target Evaluation Method of Science and Technology Talents Considering ‘Dominant-Implicit’ Reference Points

“…The data in Table 3 are input indicator weights and the data in Table 4 are output indicator weights. D (1) 0.2785 0.2465 0.3253 0.1072 0.0425 D (2) 0.1328 0.2886 0.2448 0.2028 0.1310 D (3) 0.4960 0.1630 0.2053 0.0925 0.0432 D (4) 0 The results show:…”

“…Companies should pay attention to the psychological needs of knowledge-based talents and make management innovations to absorb and retain them to promote the joint development of companies and talents, where business execution, teamwork, strategic thinking and management decision making are key competencies for innovation and entrepreneurship [2]. Digitization is leading to a strong convergence of digital technologies and supply management executives, making the division of roles clearer and supply chain management executive talent will dominate in the future [3]. More than 40% of distinguished young academics have mobility experience, so technology mobility policies, career environment development and institutional reputation and treatment have a strong impact on talent [4].…”

The Expectations of Project Managers from Artificial Intelligence: A Delphi Study

“…It is worthwhile emphasizing that it was an intentional decision to include, in the expert panel, project management practitioners with a zero to moderate level of knowledge on AI, but not AI experts, since the focus of this study was to understand the perceptions, expectations, and preferences of future users of AI in project management. A similar approach was previously taken in other Delphi studies, including studies on the impact of digitization on auditing (Tiberius & Hirth, 2019), the role of supply chain management executives (Wehrle et al, 2020), and research on the impact of service robots on leadership and human resource management in the hospitality industry (Xu et al, 2020). The fact that the expert panel did not include AI professionals enabled them to be free from thinking about the limitations of AI technologies today and ignore questions of feasibility.…”