Guse, Richard

Background:

Digital Transformation (DT) is present in many industries. It is generally understood as combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies that trigger significant changes within organizations and industries. Despite many promising benefits (e.g., efficiency, higher service quality), organizations still fail to engage in DT properly. One industry where this phenomenon can be observed particularly well is healthcare. Despite progress made throughout COVID-19, the healthcare industry still is largely considered to lag behind in using IT in their care processes. When organizations (e.g., hospitals, care facilities, etc.) fail to digitally transform or are not doing so in accordance with their employees’ expectations, this might severely impact employees’ (i.e., healthcare professionals’) perceptions. This is because employees come with their own experiences with IT and have certain expectations of how IT should support them in their work. Their experiences can come from various sources, such as their personal life, recent jobs, or interactions with and within other organizations and industries. However, it is currently unclear whether employees increasingly see a need for DT, what employees’ needs from DT are, which sources of needs employees identify, and how these sources influence their perceptions of their organization.

This is especially relevant as this might severely impact their perceptions of the organization’s capabilities and eventually influence their job satisfaction, performance, and turnover intention. This, for organizations, in turn, leads to poor overall performance and service quality.

Objective(s):

• Identify sources of needs (e.g., personal life, experience from other organizations, sectors, colleagues, etc.)
• Identify what employees need, require, or expect from DT
• Conceptualize employees’ needs from DT
• Comparison of identified employee needs with organizational needs from DT (e.g., efficiency, innovation, etc.)

Note: This is an umbrella topic. The overall goal, context, and direction of the thesis are defined in the first kickoff meeting.

Research Method:

Literature Review, Expert Interviews, or Survey Development

Literature:

• Furtner, D., Shinde, S. P., Singh, M., Wong, C. H., & Setia, S. (2022). Digital Transformation in Medical Affairs Sparked by the Pandemic: Insights and Learnings from COVID-19 Era and Beyond. Pharmaceutical Medicine, 36(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40290-021-00412-w
• Noesgaard, M. S., Nielsen, J. A., Jensen, T. B., & Mathiassen, L. (2023). Same but Different: Variations in Reactions to Digital Transformation Within an Organizational Field. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(1), 12–34. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00770
• Vial, G. (2019). Understanding digital transformation_ A review and a research agenda. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 27.