Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Abstract

Degree Name

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL)

Department

Organizational Leadership

First Advisor

Bethany Peters

Second Advisor

Jolene Erlacher

Abstract

According to various sources, 70% or more of digital transformation initiatives fail. Some authors believe the failures are due to “people” problems and the inability of organizations to overcome resistance or a lack of skills among employees. Many organizations also choose to downsize rather than skill up existing staff. However, doing so incurs costs, including the loss of business knowledge and the need to onboard new employees. These costs might have been avoided had there been sufficient effort to prepare and upskill existing employees.

This project addressed three overall questions:

  1. Why do some Digital Transformation (DT) efforts succeed while others fail?
  2. What is the role of the rank-and-file employee in DT?
  3. Does investing in upskilling and re-skilling employees with high learnability result in an increased likelihood of DT success?

To address these questions, a curriculum was developed based on current research, seeking to train rank-and-file employees in the ways of digital transformation. This curriculum covers the following topics: why organizations undertake digital transformation, readiness for transformation, preparing for transformation, leading a transformation, sustaining a transformation, and building a culture of continual improvement. At the end of the training, employees should be prepared and capable of supporting the organization’s transformation efforts, making them more valuable to the organization and enhancing their resilience in their careers.

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