Digital Leader Behaviors a Study Employing Grounded Theory

Abstract

Digitalization is the main reason just over half of the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000 newlinePierre Nantermee (2016), CEO of Accenture, at the World Economic Forum s annual meeting in Davos. newlinequotCOVID-19 has escalated digital initiatives into digital imperatives, creating urgent pressure on HR leaders to work with their CEO, CFO and CIO to rethink skills need as business models change at light speedquot ( Gartner, 2020). newlineThe present study focuses on the identification of leader behaviors pertinent for digital leadership in Indian IT organizations. A growing body of research perceives Digital Leadership as a combination of leadership approaches that can facilitate change management to enable large-scale digital transformation. The COVID-led disruptions have further accelerated said digital transformations and digitization. The practice of effective leader behaviors can facilitate successful digital transformations in the post- COVID era of accelerated digitization. This abstract outlines digital leadership and the exploratory research that can address the theory and practice gaps via leadership development. newline11 newlineStarting with a structured literature review, and based on interviews utilizing the grounded theory method, this research endeavored to identify behaviors demonstrated in the practice of digital leadership. In this thesis, the author presents exploratory research involving digital leadership practitioners and leadership development experts. The findings address leadership development in a post-COVID digital era marked by Business4.0 developments. It is concluded that the conceptual and applied contribution of this research will serve as a key decision-making aid for leadership development for organizations wishing to succeed in a disruptive world. newlineConcept of Digital Leadership newline Digital leadership is the preferred corporate leadership approach to lead in the digital age , (Gartner, 2018).