Digital technologies change employees' working environments, methods and behaviours profoundly and are challenging employees' very personal beliefs, attitudes and identities. Digital mindsets provide insight into an individual's beliefs, attitudes and assumptions related to digitalisation. Strongly influencing employee behaviour, they play a major role in an organisation’s digital transformation. Building on research on mindsets, cognition and digitalisation, Ricarda Rauch analyses digital mindsets both conceptionally and empirically. Within one qualitative and two quantitative studies, she explores the personal meaning of digitalisation and derives four central digital mindsets. Her research helps to better understand the extent to which digitalisation impacts employees, explains their subsequent behaviour, and proposes beneficial employee development measures. The thesis reveals relevant implications for organisational researchers, HR practicioners and management alike.
Author(s): Ricarda Rauch
Series: Zukunftsfähige Unternehmensführung in Forschung und Praxis
Publisher: Springer Gabler
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 214
City: Wiesbaden
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
1.1 The Idea of a Personal Meaning of Digitalisation
1.2 Digital Mindsets as Perspective and Research Deficits
1.3 Objectives and Contributions of this Dissertation
1.4 Structure of this Dissertation
2 Digital Mindsets: Notion, Theoretical Foundation and Examination Access
2.1 Locating this Work Within Research on Organisational Cognitions
2.2 The Notion of a Digital Mindset: a Multidimensional Understanding
2.2.1 The Cognitive Component
2.2.2 The Affective Component
2.2.3 The Intentional Component
2.2.4 The Context Specificity
2.2.5 Summary of the Notion of Digital Mindset
2.3 Theoretical Considerations on the Relationship between Cognition and Digitalisation
2.3.1 The Digital Working Environment as a New Cognitive Ecology
2.3.2 The Individual Mind as a Central Locus for the Cognition-context Interplay
2.3.3 Digitalisation-specific Self-perceptions as a Result of Interacting Self and Context Beliefs
2.3.4 The (in)compatibility of Beliefs as a Basis for Evaluating the Personal Meaning of Digitalisation
2.3.5 State of Research on Beliefs in the Digital Working Environment
2.4 The Cognitive Model of A.T. Beck as an Approach for Examination
2.4.1 An Adapted Conceptualisation of the Cognitive Model
2.4.2 The Validity of the Cognitive Model Beyond Psychotherapy
2.5 Summary of Considerations and Research Goals
3 Conducted Empirical Studies
3.1 Overview of Empirical Investigation and Research Strategy
3.2 A Qualitative Study Examining the Cognitive Component of Digital Mindsets
3.2.1 Goal of the Study and Research Questions
3.2.2 Methodology
3.2.3 Results
3.2.4 Discussion
3.3 Development and Pre-test of the Personal Meaning of Digitalisation Scale
3.3.1 Goal of the Study
3.3.2 Methodology
3.3.3 Results
3.3.4 Discussion
3.4 A Quantitative Study to Investigate the Composition of Digital Mindsets
3.4.1 Goal of the Study and Research Questions
3.4.2 Research Model
3.4.3 Research Context
3.4.4 Methodology
3.4.5 Results
3.4.6 Discussion
4 General Discussion and Contributions
4.1 Synthesis of Results in a Framework of Digital Mindsets
4.1.1 Attribution of Meaning to Ambivalence and (in)compatibility
4.1.2 Abstraction of Digitalisation-specific Self-perceptions
4.1.3 The Situated, Enacted and Embodied Nature of Digital Mindsets
4.2 Theoretical Reflection of Results
4.2.1 Digitalisation as a Personal Matter
4.2.2 Insights From Psychotherapy Provide Structure to Approach Mindsets
4.2.3 The Personal Meaning of Digitalisation and Ambivalence as Important Ingredient for Successful Digitalisation
4.2.4 Switching Cognitive Gears in Transitory but Robust Digital Mindsets
4.3 General Limitations
4.4 Research Implications and the Need for Future Research
4.4.1 Contributions to Research About Mindsets
4.4.2 Contributions to Research About Organisational Cognitions, Sensemaking and Ambiguity in the Digital Working Environment
4.4.3 Contributions to Research About The Digitalisation of the Working Environment and Organisational Change
4.4.4 Contributions to Research About Technology Acceptance
4.5 Practical Implications
4.5.1 Triggering Sensemaking Processes Regarding Digitalisation
4.5.2 Compensate Feared Losses Proactively
4.5.3 Fostering the Personal Development of Employees in Digital Transformation
5 Conclusion
References
