Digital leadership within large South Korean firms

Abstract

Drawing upon Person-Environment fit (PE fit) theory, this paper attempts to explore the determinants of digital leadership and its interactions between personal and environmental dimensions, including organizational, interpersonal and external dimensions, in South Korea. As Remote Work (RW) and Digital Transformation (DT) have been discussed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this research focuses upon the concept of digital leadership, which can effectively cope with both RW and DT. To help Human Resource (HR) practitioners support digital leadership, this paper employs the fuzzy-Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (f-DEMATEL) method. Through the convenience sampling method, we collected data sets from HR specialists in large South Korean firms. Our findings indicate that the organizational culture that covers digital supportive culture in the organizational dimension is the most crucial, influencing the elements in the personal dimension (e.g. new working systems, communication and acceptance of digital technologies). In contrast, the factor of capabilities in the personal dimension is the only factor affecting organizational structure and agility in the organizational dimension. Thus, we conclude that both the organizational and personal dimensions can uniquely interact with each other when actualizing digital leadership in South Korea.