Organisational Change in the Pervasive Digitalization Era : A qualitative study of the impact of digital transformation on organizational change and individuals within organizations

Abstract: Date: 2022-06-01 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Rahaf Alkhadra  & Jessika Melander  Title: Organisational Change in The Pervasive Digitalization Era Supervisor: Konstantin Lampou Research question: How is digital transformation as an organizational change implemented in organizations and how is it perceived by the individuals within the organization? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic digital changes within organizations, by investigating the process of implementing digital transformation and how it impacts organizational structure on both organizational and individual levels. Therefore, the practice of digital transformation, in which it is manifested as individuals’ perceptions of the change process will be pursued to better equip the notion of contemporary organizations when addressing organizational change. Method: Since the goal is to interpret a pervasive phenomenon, an abductive approach along with a qualitative design were followed to enable an accurate clarification of the subject. The data has been collected from 16 participants through semi-structured interviews with different organizations. Conclusion: The implementation process of DT contains three main phases (sensing, sizing, and transforming), where the transforming phase is where individuals’ perceptions can be comprehended since it is the key element of ensuring the goals of digitalization. Also, the duality of individuals’ perceptions manifested in the reasoning and sensemaking of the change and not in the digitalization per se.  Keywords: Organizational change, digitalization, digital transformation, contingency theory, individuals perceptions.