Стратегическая роль менеджеров среднего звена в разработке и внедрении проектов цифровой трансформации
Главной целью магистерской диссертации является исследование стратегического участия менеджмента среднего звена в разработке и внедрении проектов цифровой трансформации, а также определение ролей и действий, которые имеют наибольшее влияние на успешное внедрение таких проектов. Для достижения данной цели был проведен анализ связанных с темой существующих научных работ и на их основе была разработана новая и подходящая для исследования структура. На ее основе были собраны и проанализированы данные по стратегическому поведению менеджмента среднего звена в контексте цифровой трансформации через призму опыта управленческих консультантов. Главные результаты исследования включают в себя определение стратегических ролей и действий менеджеров среднего звена, присутствующих на проектах цифровой трансформации, а также оценка важности конкретных ролей и действий для успешного внедрения таких проектов.
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Chapter 1. Literature review …………………………………………………………………………………………..8
1.1 Digital Transformation research overview………………………………………………………………..8
1.1.1. Definition …………………………………………………………………………………………………….8 1.1.2. Phases of digital initiatives ……………………………………………………………………………10 1.1.3. Strategic Imperatives of digital transformation …………………………………………………11
1.2. Strategic roles of middle managers in organizations ………………………………………………..14
1.2.1. Middle management perspective research………………………………………………………..14 1.2.2. Middle managers foster corporate entrepreneurship in organizations ……………………17 1.2.3. Four key strategic roles of middle managers …………………………………………………….19 1.2.4. Fifth strategic role: Leadership ………………………………………………………………………22 1.2.5. Consideration of other strategic roles………………………………………………………………25
1.3. Research gap & questions …………………………………………………………………………………..27
Chapter 2. Methodology………………………………………………………………………………………………29
2.1. Research philosophy and approach ………………………………………………………………………29 2.2. Research methods ……………………………………………………………………………………………..31 2.3. Data and respondents …………………………………………………………………………………………34 2.4. Data collection………………………………………………………………………………………………….35 2.5. Interview design ……………………………………………………………………………………………….36 2.6. Data analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………….38 2.7. Limitations of the research………………………………………………………………………………….40
Chapter 3. Findings …………………………………………………………………………………………………….42
3.1. Common characteristics of the projects …………………………………………………………………42 3.2. Implementing deliberate strategy …………………………………………………………………………44 3.3. Facilitating adaptability………………………………………………………………………………………52 3.4. Synthesizing information ……………………………………………………………………………………61 3.5. Championing alternatives……………………………………………………………………………………65 3.6. Leadership ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….72 3.7. Importance of strategic roles ……………………………………………………………………………….82
Chapter 4. Discussion of findings and implications ………………………………………………………….85
4.1. Summary of the results ………………………………………………………………………………………85 4.2. Theoretical and practical implications …………………………………………………………………..90
4.3. Direction for future research ……………………………………………………………………………….92
References ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..93 Appendix 1. Interview guideline …………………………………………………………………………………100 Appendix 2. Excel survey to evaluate importance of strategic roles and activities………………..103
Digitization is not a new phenomenon and it is happening in every part of the society. However, in recent years many companies initiated so called “digital transformation” initiatives. Despite the agreed-on vagueness of the term it is commonly used to describe all types of digital related corporate change projects from integration of digital tools into everyday business processes to full-scale organizational restructurations (McKinsey, 2017). According to McKinsey (2018) 8 out of 10 companies in S&P500 have undertaken digital transformation efforts in the period of 2013 – 2018. Most vivid examples include companies like General Electric, ING, Disney and Lego (KMDA, 2018). Though, historically, less than 30% percent of digital transformational activities
bring the results which fulfill all the stated targets (McKinsey Global Survey, 2012; 2014; 2016;
2018).
Information Systems (IS) research has long been studying initiatives covering changes
related to information technologies (IT) in the organizations. Significant attention was given to the importance of top management support and to the role that end users play in the technology implementation. However, IS research almost completely ignored the role that middle managers play in digital transformation. From the perspective of general management research, even though there are papers focusing on the middle management roles in different change types (Wooldridge, 2008), digital transformation projects have been largely neglected. Though, there are occasional studies, that highlight middle management importance for digital transformation development, almost none have explored this involvement in depth (Buss, 2011; Tabrizi, 2014; Ukil and Akkas, 2016; Jaoua, 2018).
In the research literature strategic contributions of middle managers are well recognized.
Middle managers are positioned between the operationally focused front-line managers and strategically focused executive managers which allows them to develop and promote innovative actionable ideas (Dougherty and Hardy, 1996), increase effectiveness in reaching companies’ targets (Floyd and Wooldridge, 1997) and execute strategic plans (Floyd and Wooldridge, 1992).
However, there is a research gap in the research of middle management strategic role in the development of digital transformation projects. Even though the topic of digital transformation has gained a lot of attention in the recent years there is a lack of studies that explore strategic role
of middle managers in the strategy formulation and implementation in such projects. The only
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relevant identified study was conducted by Paavola et al (2017) which was a case study of a Finish public sector company. Other digital transformation studies did not explore the topic of middle
management involvement in depth, though, acknowledging their role in the creation of emergent strategies (Chanias and Hess, 2016; Hirte and Sieger, 2018; Kolbjørnsrud et al., 2017). Additionally, the role of management was identified to be crucial for the success of such projects and even superior to the technological issues that companies face (Kane, 2019).
Current study is a response to both the lack of relevant studies and a response to Floyd and Wooldridge (2012) call for additional research about strategic role of middle managers in the transformational projects.
The main goal of the research is to explore involvement of middle managers in strategy
formulation and implementation in digital transformation change projects and evaluate the importance of middle management strategic roles and strategic activities for projects’ successful implementation.
Objectives of the thesis are to investigate presence of middle management strategic roles and associated with them activities in the digital transformation projects and evaluate their importance for the successful projects’ implementation.
To address the abovementioned problem and achieve the main goal of the research the following research questions will be stated:
RQ1: Which middle management strategic roles are applied in digital transformation projects?
RQ2: Which key activities are associated with each middle management strategic role in digital transformation projects?
RQ3: How important is each middle management strategic role for the successful implementation of digital transformation projects?
RQ4: Which middle management strategic activities within each strategic role are important for the successful implementation of digital transformation projects?
Thesis is structured in 4 chapters. Chapter 1 will explore previous literature on the topics of digital transformation and strategic involvement of middle managers in the strategy formulation and implementation in general and with the focus on change projects and digital transformation
projects in particular. Chapter 2 will present the methodology applied in the thesis explaining the
chosen approach, research methods, sampling criteria for the respondents, used techniques of data
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analysis, interview design and limitations of the research. In Chapter 3 findings from the data will be presented following the structure of the chosen theoretical framework. Chapter 4 will
summarize findings, present answers to the research questions, discuss theoretical and practical implications of the thesis and provide a direction for future research.
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