Abstract
In the digital age, the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis uncovered entities' pressing top-priority to reimagine and to reinvent themselves, thus embracing the unrivalled benefits and the unmatched opportunities offered by digital transformation. Hence, the advantages revealed by digital transformation helped shape the “new normal” and addressed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) beyond compare, bringing inimitable changes and challenges to organizational culture and employee motivation. On the one hand, the aim of this novel and original study is to highlight the importance of digital transformation for all, now and for the future generations, thus ensuring better and more complex ways to communicate and to connect. On the other hand, the objective of this up-to-date and eye-opening chapter is to display the trends that come to fuel digital transformation in order to create new business processes and develop new cultural paths, thus accentuating customers' experiences, diversifying market requirements, and intensifying the need for better organizational security.
TopIntroduction
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) pointed out in document addressing the topic of “Digital Transformation (DT)” (2022) the potential that digital technology and digital products display in our society in terms of accelerating innovation, fostering development, and supporting sustainability (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2022a). In the same vein with the aforementioned ideas, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted the importance of connecting the advantages of the new technologies with three “key action areas – climate, nature and pollution”, being able in this way to find the right solutions capable to ensure the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for all individuals and for all nations, during present days and in the future (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2022a). Hence, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) brought to the attention impressive figures capable to show the immense potential that the digital transformation brought in terms of turning the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) closer to reality than ever before, as follows: first of all, according to specialists, digital transformation has the capacity to reduce “Carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20%”; second of all, according to specialists, digital transformation has the possibility to reduce “the use of natural resources in products by 90%”; and third of all, according to specialists, digital transformation has the power to reduce waste and detoxify “supply chains by a factor of 10-100X” (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2022a).
Even though themes such as digital transformation, organizational change, organizational culture, employees’ motivation, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are approached by specialists at a constant level, there are always new angles to the same problems that are waiting to be presented and improved solutions to the same challenges that are waiting to be uncovered. Besides this, the vast nature of studies that address these topics, creates room for new analysis, debates, and discussions, since these are very demanding times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis as well as of individuals and entities normal reluctance to everything that is new, bold, and out of the ordinary patterns with which humanity got used to until that very moment.
The novel and the original book chapter entitled “Digital Transformation Impact on Organizations’ Culture and Employees’ Motivation: Shaping the “New Normal” and Addressing Sustainable Development Goals” is part of the up-to-date trends and ingenious themes due to be unravelled in the new book entitled “Positive and Constructive Contributions for Sustainable Development Goals”.
The main purpose of this highly challenging book chapter is to present the implications of digital transformation in a knowledge society profoundly dominated by the necessity to have fast access to information, in the new form imposed by the pressure to which both the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis have subjected both the individuals and the entities worldwide. In this matter, the authors asked themselves the following key question (main research question MRQ): “Which are the dominant changes brought in our society by digital transformation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis?” (MRQ)
In continuation, several additional secondary research questions (SRQs) arise, due to the complex nature of digital transformation. These secondary research questions (SRQs) are displayed by the authors in the lines below, as follows:
Step 1: First of all, besides the main purpose already mentioned above, this book chapter seeks to present the theoretical background (the literature review, the most relevant studies) that constitutes the foundation of the concept “digital transformation”, which turned out to be one of the most demanding ones in the society individuals currently live in, in particular, due to its complex nature. In general lines, the theoretical background (the literature review, the most relevant studies) tackle several aspects surrounding the concept “digital transformation”, namely: offering complex definitions and displaying possible meanings of this term; stating the role and the importance of digital transformation in the Digital Age; bringing examples of ways in which digital transformation in the Digital Age helps the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Under these circumstances, the authors asked themselves the following complex secondary question (first secondary research question SRQ1): “What does digital transformation represent in our knowledge society in terms of concept, role, and importance?” (SRQ1)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Digital Infrastructure: The global challenges have determined leaders and governments worldwide to pay a particular attention to the digital infrastructure (DI) development, since there are many vital aspects to be considered in this regard, such as: (a) the climate change implicates finding solutions capable to offer effective and responsible answers when it comes to public finance management, since countries have to focus on helping the ecosystems regenerate (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2022f); and (b) the climate change implicates finding solutions capable to offer effective and responsible answers when it comes to inclusive digital infrastructure (DI), since besides seeking modern digital systems, the focus should be on creating inclusive solutions aiming to support innovation with care for nature and global communities (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2022f).
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The great concern of leaders, managers, and researchers towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represents the result of the society’s need to cope better with its challenges, especially in the new context generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2021).
Well-Being in the Digital Age: The digital age has promoted the importance of individuals and entities to communicate, yet at all times the target of these forms of connectivity tend to address healthier ways to learn, live, work, and play; even though the digital age has brought an enormous potential to become more closer to one another, individuals should become more aware of the dangers of the digital age and should learn to cope better with the existing treats, focusing on healthy ways of living, their well-being, and sustainability in terms of the development of the society (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2019a).
Innovation in the Digital Age: Innovation represents the key for development, yet the development should be done sustainably in order to generate well-being and prosperity during present times as well as in the future; the digital age placed innovation among its top priorities, due to the fact that the advancement of the new technologies depend on investments in research activities (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2019b).
Resilience: “Transformations within a complex system related to the capacity for self-organization while maintaining internal structure, together with the ability to create adaptive responses, generate knowledge, experience, and learning. Resilience and sustainability are directly related to changes within societies, economies, and the human system as a whole. The transformation of systems is inevitable since it allows systems to strengthen” ( González et al., 2022 ).
Economic Globalization: “This is a phenomenon in expansion that causes profound changes on the world stage. It revolves around trade, the flow of investment, financial capital, division of labour and specialization. The concept is not limited only to economic variables since its effects extend to individuals, society to the state. Developing countries are experiencing stagnation in the face of their inability to cope with globalization, which is compounded by poor management of their financial markets, leading to an increase in the income inequality gap. Economic globalization brings with it the mobilization of goods and capital, reduces distance between borders and energizes international trade with some alterations to sovereignty” ( González et al., 2022 ).
Sustainability: These days, sustainability refers to numerous areas being given uncountable definitions, but when it comes to addressing digital transformation it embodies the instruments and the technologies’ capacity to create an adequate environment that should reflect care for employees, comfortable working environment, circular economy, water conservation systems, smart workstations, and systems development in accordance to nature (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2022e).
Empowerment as a Result of the New Technological Revolution: The Digital Age implicates collaborative business processes and practices, and businesses increase in growth and productivity depends on entities capacity to motivate individuals to work more and become more dedicated to the goals of the companies; since people are very difficult to manage due to the particular nature of human beings, the New Technological Revolution offered companies the opportunity to use machines instead of individuals in certain areas, which gave employees the chance to leave the routine activities to specific technologies and focus on other tasks that tend to fulfil better expectations (World Economic Forum (WEF), 2022e).