Managing the transition to a 'digital culture' : the experience of financial service firms

Abstract

Business and academic literature have shown a continuous demand for adaptive organisational cultures. Despite this, organisational culture continues to be viewed in isolation from change practices in digital transformation efforts. Organisational culture is viewed as being staunch and resistant to change. However, in a time of rapid innovations and digital transformations, this resistance needs to be broken down into controllable levers which managers can influence. Qualitative, exploratory research methods were adopted in an attempt to gain insights into the characteristics that drive organisational digital culture and change practices adopted by organisations. A total of 14 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from HR, Agile Transformation and Digital departments, all leading digital strategies and digital change initiatives within the organisation. Each interview was analysed by means of thematic content analysis to draw insights. The key findings supported the literature that organisational culture plays a vital role in transformation efforts but face many challenges at an implementation level. Insights were drawn from best practices of the interviewees to offer a, 'Interactive Digital Culture Toolkit'. The findings from this research adds to the practical body of knowledge in how organisations mange the transition to a digital culture, an imperative for managers who are leading digital transformations.