Digital Leadership Skills and Associations with Psychological Well-Being

Due to increasing digitalisation, today’s working world is changing rapidly and provides managers with new challenges. Digital leadership is an important factor in managing these challenges and has become a key concept in the discussion about what kinds of skills managers need for digital transformation. The main research question our study explored was if digital leadership is associated with psychological well-being in upper-level managers. Based on a qualitative pilot study and relevant literature, we developed a new scale for digital leadership in managers. We conducted an online survey with a sample of 368 upper-level managers from a large German ICT-company. Using a stepwise logistic regression analysis, potential effects of digital leadership on psychological well-being (WHO-5) were analysed. Logistic regression analyses showed that better skills in digital leadership were significantly associated with higher well-being. Results also showed that gender, age and managerial experience had no effect in our model. Our study provides a valuable insight into the association between digital leadership and well-being in managers. However, further research is necessary to validate the newly developed scale for digital leadership and to confirm a causal effect in the relationship between digital leadership and well-being.