Digitalisation and Leadership - An Analysis of the Effect of Digitalisation on Modern Leadership Characteristics andits Current Application in the Leadership Practices in the DAX 30 Companies

Abstract

Digitalisation is an essential factor for doing business in the 21st century to stay competitive and be efficient. Leadership is recognised as a central factor for success in many organisations already. Therefore, this thesis investigates the influence of digitalisation on leadership in the 21st century. The concepts of leading by empowerment, shared leadership as well as visionary leadership are researched on in detail. The literature on digitalisation, leadership and the changes in leadership towards digitalisation are examined and the central factors digital competence, openness for innovation, social and emotional intelligence, teamwork and collaboration and empowerment together with shared leadership are worked out. The industry analysis, taking the DAX 30 companies into account, demonstrates which extend the factors, named above, influence prevailing leadership styles. For this purpose, profiles of the companies regarding their digitalisation in leadership are compiled and the companies are classified by their degree of digitalisation in leadership. AS a result, the number of employees and the age of a company have a weak negative correlation with the company’s degree of digitalisation in leadership. The EBIT and the spending on R&D however, show a positive correlation with the degree of leadership digitalisation. Generally, most analysed companies are not highly digitalised yet.