What Is Digital Organizational Culture? Insights From Exploratory Case Studies

Abstract

Whilst Information Systems research has focused on how products, processes, and organizations have to be transformed in the digital age, we know little about how and why the organizational culture of firms needs to be 'digitalized'. Drawing on the organizational culture model by Edgar Schein, we analyze data from eleven cases across various industries to identify the facets of digitalizing firms' organizational cultures. Specifically, we explore their Artifacts, Espoused Beliefs and Values, and Underlying Assumptions. Our study contributes by delineating a 'digital organizational culture' that underpins the motivation for firms to digitalize.

Digital Transformation of Industrial Organizations: Toward an Integrated Framework

“…Last, our results identified organizational culture as an enabler that incumbent organizations focus on the most for digital transformation. In the literature, culture is discussed as an enabler of transformation (Scheibe & Gupta, 2017) and an obstacle regarding the adoption of new digital technologies (Duerr et al, 2018;Hallikainen et al, 2017;Shahzad, 2020). Impactful digital transformation is not possible without changing the basis of the organization, which lies in its culture (Armenakis et al, 2011;Nambisan et al, 2017;Westerman et al, 2014).…”

“…Therefore, our results identified a special focus on cultural change in the incumbent industrial organizations. Organizational culture provides unwritten and unspoken rules for how to cope in the organization (Duerr et al, 2018). Schein (1985) divided culture into three sub-parts: artefacts, beliefs and values, and assumptions.…”

“…On the other hand, structures are still not changed formally. Beliefs and values are one of the most important parts of transformation, because even the best-designed digital strategy may fail if the organization's values do not embrace the transformation (Duerr et al, 2018). Therefore, we see the main focus on value change in the digital transformation projects of incumbent firms, e.g.…”

Conceptualizing Knowledge in Digital Innovation Labs

“…Moreover, future studies may leverage our conceptualization to analyze how individual knowledge and learning in a DIL may aggregate up to the organizational level and contribute to organizational learning. For instance, as an individual moves from the DIL back into their base role and they selectively apply exploration ways of working knowledge in the existing organization, to what extent can they be successful in encouraging a culture of agility and digitalization, and ultimately facilitating a cultural shift at organizational level [35]? Second, our conceptualization is beneficial to practitioners such as executives or project managers in charge of DILs and project teams in them.…”

Digitalization and Digital Transformation and Adoption in the Public Administration during the Covid19 Pandemic Crisis

“…Digitalization, as a socio-technical phenomenon of adjusting digital technologies, "disrupts" markets and organizations (Legner et al, 2017) and makes them flexible and competitive within the rapidly changing market conditions (Berghaus & Back, 2017; Fitzgerald et al, 2013). To overcome this challenge, organizations are responding to their digital transformation, they create digital transformation strategies that seek to transform their activities and processes (Chanias & Hess, 2016;Matt et al, 2015;Porter and Heppelmann, 2014) and to adapt their internal configuration to digital innovation (Duerr et al, 2018;Westerman and Bonnet, 2005;Yoo, 2010;Xanthopoulou, 2021). In addition, digitalization is defined as the process of using technologies to change a business model in order to increase opportunities for higher revenue and value-added activities.…”