This article presents an instrument for measuring the construct of digital leadership competence at the computer workstation. Digitalization is considered one of the mega-trends that is causing profound social change in the sense of a transformation of living and working environments. Both, general media and scientific publications attempt to develop a comprehensive definition of the term. The Federal Agency for Civic Education initially defines digitalization on a technical level as a "process that converts information into machine-readable data and stores it, as well [it defines it] as processes of data processing, transmission and combination" [1].
In the context of work, the concept of digitalization experiences an expansion that is increasingly oriented toward people and their social interaction at the macro, micro, and me-so levels [1]. The interpretation of the term and aspects of the concept are therefore complex and vary, depending on the subject. Traum et al. (2017), as part of the KODIMA project, developed a definition that explicitly includes the working individual affected by digitalization:
"Digitalization is the introduction or increased use of information and communication technologies (ICT) by (working) individuals, organizations, economic sectors and societies with the characteristic consequences of acceleration, increasing abstractness, flexibilization, and individualization of processes and outcomes." [2]
Piasecki (2020) draws a narrower frame of reference around municipal administrations and describes digitalization as "essentially the shift of administrative tasks to a new digital level and the integration of traditional (paper-based) processes into computer-based processing structures to optimize results and accelerate procedures" [3]. The goal of work-related digitalization is the transition to the working world 4.0, in which routine activities are replaced by knowledge-based decision-making with complex, dynamically changing activities. Thus, office work can be organized and designed more individually. The expansion of existing technologies encourages mobile working at flexible workplaces with flexible working hours [4]. “Arbeit 4.0” (English: Work 4.0), has established itself as a signal term referring to the fundamental structural change in gainful employment resulting from advancing digitalization [5]. Digital and mobile communication enable companies to collaborate and coordinate over greater spatial distance as well as with temporal flexibility. It also facilitates access to specialized knowledge, expertise, and resources [6]. A variety of new work models result from the changing work opportunities. Boundaries in different areas, such as between locations, companies, customers, and workforces are becoming increasingly blurred [6]. Routine activities become more and more automated, so much that tasks for employees can be designed to be more cross-functional and cross-divisional. Their work becomes increasingly information-based. The targeted further qualification of the workforce is of crucial importance [6]. Therefore, demands on managers are more often subject to digital transformation processes, too.
The changes in work described above are reflected in society's understanding of leadership. The concept of employee leadership and the demands placed on managers keep changing as digitalization progresses.
In general, leadership is required whenever several people work on problem solutions in a division of labor with need for coordination [7, 8]. "The increasing complexity of organizations and work requires leaders to manage people as effectively and efficiently as possible" [8]. Socially, the notion of leadership is evolving since the beginning of the 20th century from unidirectional control to a holistic, reciprocal influence in which leaders solicit and use employee feedback for advancement. In the process, two major leadership styles have emerged which have been proven effective in the face of the demands of the modern workplace [9, 10].
Transactional leadership is characterized by defined objectives. Work performance gets traded for rewards in various forms. The manager acts as an intermediary for employer and employee. The focus is on achieving the defined goals [9]. The manager's competence is to identify work-related aspects, which satisfy employee’s needs, and to fulfill them. Accordingly, they respond to existing interests [10]. In the context of transformational leadership, the manager acts as a positive role model and multiplier. Employees are inspired by their ideas and visions. Their personal development is encouraged by enhancing a positive working attitude [9]. In this way, managers effect employee motivation to pursue ambitious goals more personally than in the context of a transactionally driven employment relationship [10]. Nevertheless, various aspects of both leadership styles can be combined and are already described in literature to reach successful digital leadership and leadership culture.
Meier et al. (2017) identify four key aspects for digital leadership culture based of interactive leadership (transactional and transformational) [11].
(1) Collaborative - working closely with colleagues and co-workers in terms of transparent or shared decision-making;
(2) Integer and social - social skills to work with (interchanging) project groups while giving individuals the necessary free space for their work;
(3) Inspiring and open - being open to criticism, acting as a role model, and providing impetus for change;
(4) Fostering resilience - confidence in one's own abilities combined with a culture of constructive criticism.
Some aspects of positive leadership culture are found in the components of digital leadership. In literature, the term digital leadership is not defined consistently, as different emphases are placed on it. Promsri (2019) compiles 64 characteristics of digital leadership in a review paper and aggregates them into six characteristics of a digital leader [12]:
(1) Digital knowledge and literacy - knowledge of the possibilities of digitalization-related changes;
(2) Vision - clear objective regarding desired digital transformation processes;
(3) Customer focus - taking into account the expectations and wishes of customers with regard to digital processes;
(4) Agility - good adaptability toward the rapidly changing work processes;
(5) Risk-taking (creation of an experimental atmosphere) - establishing a culture of constructive criticism that enables trial and error as well as innovation;
(6) Collaboration - strengthening the cooperation among employees in terms of location, time, culture, etc.
Overall, there is an observable trend from rigid, hierarchical management toward dynamic decision-making processes with flat hierarchies, joint decision-making and changing responsibilities. Social skills become increasingly relevant alongside expert knowledge [6, 11, 12]. This trend is expressed in the empowerment approach [13]. Individual, employee-related empowerment aims to influence the perception of the employee role positively. Accordingly, the perception of one's own significance, competence, self-determination, and influence during work should be strengthened [13]. Central connections to successful digital work can be found in the experienced self-determination and the experienced influence on the working process. This goes hand in hand with greater freedom of choice for employees regarding working hours, work location and the sequence of working processes. Flattened hierarchies in project groups also enable and require self-organization with changing leadership role focused on personal skills [4, 6].
The results of current reviews [14, 15] indicate that positive leadership styles and behaviors are associated with better health, less health complaints and less stress experience. Negative leadership behaviors as a risk factor are analyzed significantly less. Nevertheless, the reviews point out that negative leadership behavior is associated with low psychological well-being, lower job satisfaction and higher sick leave. [15] The "health-oriented leadership" (HoL) approach of Franke and Felfe goes beyond these studies and provides a broader model of health-specific leadership behavior. Within this approach, more aspects of a leader’s communication and the health-promoting design of working conditions are integrated. In addition, values and awareness of managers towards the health of their employees as well as the awareness and behavior of the employees themselves are addressed. [16]
From the transformation processes described above, a need for evaluating digital leadership styles can be derived. A particular need arises in Germany around municipal administrations. This is due to the fact that they are, for example, obligated to keep digital records and offer electronic citizen services according to the framework of the Act to Promote Electronic Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia. While it is also called E-Government Act and the municipal administrations have accepted the challenge, there is a need to operationalize digital leadership.
Existing approaches for constructing an index of digital leadership competence refer to small and medium-sized enterprises [17], are based on a survey of the executives themselves [18], or do not have a sufficient number of cases for validation [19]. Other existing approaches are used for personnel selection and classification of managers [20, 21].
The score proposed in the following, on the other hand, is based on the subjective perspective of managed employees at VDU workstations in municipal administrations and was developed as part of the project "Health and Digital Change" (GudW), in which it is also being tested. The score is called “DigiFuehr” due to the German word “Führung”, which means leadership. The following hypotheses are to be tested:
- The items of the DigiFuehr score have a high discriminatory power, i.e. all items have at least medium correlations with the remaining overall construct (r > .3).
- The DigiFuehr score measures a one-dimensional construct, i.e., in a principal component analysis only one factor can be extracted that has an eigenvalue greater than one (EV > 1).
- The items of the DigiFuehr score are homogeneous, i.e. they show at least medium correlations among each other (r > .3).
- The items of the DigiFuehr score are highly reliable, i.e. they show a high internal consistency (α> .8).
- The DigiFuehr score can be construct-validated via an analogous summative score to classic leadership (called “ClassicFuehr”), i.e., the two scores have at least a medium correlation with each other (r > .3).