Stepping in and stepping aside: Employees navigating digital transformation paradoxes

Abstract

We explore how employees with a positive attitude towards digital transformation navigate organizational paradoxes. Companies can manage paradoxes by employing a “both/and” approach. However, this strategy might not translate well to the day to day work of the employee, who jumps between tasks which often lie at opposite poles of the paradox. Using qualitative data from a construction company in the gradual process of transforming, we inductively reveal two types of employees, followers and explorers. These employees enact practices of stepping in and stepping aside, in that they are both proactive and task-intrinsic, reactive and accepting, in such a way as to be able to continue contributing to the digital transformation. We shed light on the importance of uncovering the tactical practices used by employees in their day to day work in order to be able to navigate organizational paradoxes and thus promote the long-term success of the digital transformation.