In the framework of Work 4.0, there is a firm association between digital leadership, employee productivity and corporate success [1]. The “DigiFuehr” scale is known as an indicator of digital leadership competence at the visual display unit (VDU) workstation in municipal administrations. It consists of seven items, of which one refers to co-determination, while the rest is support-oriented. Each item can be rated on a four-point Likert scale of which the value four indicates full agreement. The original version of the summative tool “has the character of a suggestion that is intended to initiate a scientific discourse, whereby there is a fundamental openness to modifications and improvements” [2]. In the meantime, further tools measuring digital leadership were published [1, 3–5]. Now there is also feedback both from professional as well as scientific peers.
Contrary to the initial misunderstanding of some professional users, digital leadership should not be confused with other constructs. It needs to be explained that digital leadership is a comparatively young field of research with definitional ambiguities. This is confirmed by Klein who states that “since most of the companies are still in the beginning of their digital transformation, there is a lack of a common understanding and a standard model of digital leadership” [4].
Regularly, digital leadership is equated with virtual and e-leadership. However, the latter merely describes the classic social influence exerted by a superior, but supported by technically advanced communication and information systems that bridge physical distances. Within the framework of this paper, digital leadership is defined as a set of principles that ultimately aim to establish a customer-centric, technologically advanced business model. In the course of this transformation, the demands on managers, but also on entire organizations and their employees without management responsibility, are changing. Some authors even assume that every single employee will be considered a digital leader in the near future, although mutual digital support remains crucial. [6]
Consequently, the DigiFuehr tool targets digital leadership culture at the team level, which also includes horizontal leadership, rather than evaluating the competence of a single leading or non-leading individual. At the annual meeting of the German Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (DGAUM) it was also elaborated that the representation of self-organization as a part of digital leadership needs to be extended. Kelso highlights a structure of interaction and mutual feedback loops when he points out that ‘‘self-organization refers to the spontaneous formation of pattern and pattern change in complex systems whose elements adapt to the very patterns of behavior they create’’ [7].
The reaction to the DigiFuehr publication fits a passage within the results section of the original paper, which states the following:
“While the summative instrument in its current form is indeed selective, homogenous and (rather) one-dimensional, the item targeting co-determination deviates from the other components due to a noticeable overlap with an independent second factor that could be extracted from the data using PCA. This is expectable when considering that co-determination depends on autonomy and participation […]. As a requirement of autonomy, it is crucial how far a digital leader is willing to enable cooperation and self-organization within his team. On this account, further research is well advised to investigate whether co-determination should be modelled as an independent component of digital leadership.” [2]
For these reasons, an extended version of the published DigiFuehr scale is now available, which is called “DigiFuehr 2.0”. The novel scale takes into account the original dimension of support and adds further items targeting self-organization. Autonomous self-organization is itself based on participation (as a preliminary stage of vertical autonomy), self-determination (or decentralization) and coordination (the need for which results from increased redundancy). Hence, self-organization in the business context can be described as the ability and authorization of subordinate organizational members to make decisions that affect themselves, while their work tasks overlap. [8]
Each of the three elements of self-organization – participation, self-determination and coordination – is reflected by one item of the DigiFuehr 2.0 index. The item that already targets co-determination (DigiFuehr 1) is equated with participation. A comparison of the two versions with the formulation of its items as well as the supposed factor structure of the novel version are displayed in Table 1.
Table 1
DigiFuehr 1.0 and 2.0 item comparison and DigiFuehr 2.0 factor structure
DigiFuehr 1.0 | DigiFuehr 2.0 | Factor (DigiFuehr 2.0) |
“I am involved in decisions that affect my work and my digital work environment.” (DigiFuehr 1) My digital literacy is encouraged by my manager.” (DigiFuehr 2) “When there is a need for questions about digitalization, I receive support from my manager.” (DigiFuehr 3) “I get regular feedback on the quality of my digital work.” (DigiFuehr 4) “I get all the information I need to do my digital job.” (DigiFuehr 5) “I am supported by my manager to better understand and use digital applications.” (DigiFuehr 6) “In my department, digital working methods are encouraged.” (DigiFuehr 7) | “I am involved in decisions that affect my work and my digital work environment.” (DigiFuehr 1) “I can determine which working methods, procedures and solution approaches I use to process my tasks.” (DigiFuehr 8) “I coordinate my work tasks with my colleagues.” (DigiFuehr 9) My digital literacy is encouraged by my manager.” (DigiFuehr 2) “When there is a need for questions about digitalization, I receive support from my manager.” (DigiFuehr 3) “I get regular feedback on the quality of my digital work.” (DigiFuehr 4) “I get all the information I need to do my digital job.” (DigiFuehr 5) “I am supported by my manager to better understand and use digital applications.” (DigiFuehr 6) “In my department, digital working methods are encouraged.” (DigiFuehr 7) | Self-organization (Participation) Self-organization (Self-determination) Self-organization (Coordination) Support Support Support Support Support Support |
The paper at hand now aims to test the original version of the DigiFuehr scale against two extended and one reduced version. In this way, the additional information obtained by integrating the items that represent participation, self-determination and coordination is questioned critically. It is also examined whether a multidimensional factor structure underlies the construct of digital leadership in municipal administrations when more information on self-organizing teams is available.