Digital Leadership

Digitalization has fostered virtual organizations, and nothing has made that clearer than the shutdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been structural changes in how leaders interact with followers and vice versa. This has changed the power dynamics between followers and leaders. This resource will introduce you to how the leader and follower roles can change situationally and examines approaches to leader-followership in the digital age.

7. Literature on digital leadership

7.2 Digital leadership

Digital leadership refers to leadership in the core sectors of the knowledge society - the three "C's of computing, communications and content (broadcasting and print), and now multi-media". Narbona defines digital leadership as "human quality of leadership exercised with digital tools in the virtual world". Others define it as "doing the right things for the strategic success of digitalization" for organizations that require different mindsets, skillsets, and workplaces. Digital leadership is relational leadership because the relationships between leaders and followers in the social media platform (e.g., Twitter) occupy the prominent role. Digital leadership is also occasional, unpredictable, and organic. In a matter of hours, days, or weeks, one may gain an enormous influence through verbal or visual messages via the World Wide Web. For instance, those who gain more followers in their Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube accounts rise to a level of influence that humans have never seen before. Thus, digital leadership is not static positional leadership but rather spontaneous, fluid, short-lived, and role-based.