Role of Leadership Skills for Developing Digital Acumen in Information Technology Employees

Abstract

With the plethora of changes happening in organizations adopting new digital technologies, managing human resources in information technology organizations had never been more challenging. Keeping in mind, a very few literature available on the role of HR in the new digital era, an attempt has been made in this study to explore the role of leadership skills for developing digital acumen in people working in information technology organizations. The study used sequential mixed methodology to explore the insights of subject matter experts, technology leaders and HR professionals to develop an instrument that explored necessary leadership skills for acquiring digital acumen in employees working in information technology companies. The first part of the study was based on exploring narratives of five subject matter experts. The inputs from these experts came out with broad themes and sub-themes that were used for developing the constructs, namely, acquiring digital acumen, adaptability, ambiguity tolerance, teamwork and collaboration and championing leadership. The part two of the study involved the use of the instrument for recording the opinion of 210 respondents working in software development positions in reputed information technology companies in the NCR of Delhi. The results showed that respondent perception on acquiring digital acumen was mediated by the factor championing leadership. Other intervening leadership variables such as adaptability, ambiguity tolerance and teamwork and collaboration exerted their influence on acquiring digital acumen by exercising ‘championing leadership’ abilities in the organization.