„Transforming digitally“: Digital innovations for the successful realization of organizational change

Project description

The research project Transforming Digitally (DIOW) investigated how digital innovations can be leveraged to navigate and realise organisational change more successfully. The project aimed to understand how digital technologies can support, reshape, and actively co-constitute change processes in organisations. In doing so, it analysed the opportunities, risks, and underlying mechanisms associated with the use of digital innovations in organisational change.

The project was conducted in an interdisciplinary manner, bringing together perspectives from management research, information systems, and sociology. This combination enabled a comprehensive examination of the technical, organisational, and social dynamics of digitally supported change processes.

In the first work package, the theoretical, empirical, and technological foundations of the project were established. A systematic literature review revealed that while extensive research exists on digital transformation and change management, there has been little systematic investigation into the deliberate use of digital technologies as tools to enhance and steer change processes. Building on these insights, the project developed an integrative conceptual framework that combined task-, stakeholder-, and technology-oriented perspectives, which served as the theoretical foundation for the subsequent empirical studies.

The second work package focused on an in-depth qualitative exploration of the phenomenon. A multi-stage Delphi study involving more than 70 experts from academia and practice identified key opportunities and risks associated with the use of digital innovations in change management. The main potentials identified included increased transparency, participation, and personalisation, while risks were primarily related to data protection, surveillance, and ethical tensions. Complementary interviews with works council members, managers, and employees examined how trust, participation, and critical data practices shape the acceptance of digital tools in change processes. It revealed that the successful use of digital tools is strongly dependent on their organisational embedding and the transparent design of decision-making processes.

The third work package encompassed in-depth organisational case studies. In cooperation with an international industrial corporation, the project examined the approach of Data-Driven Change (DDC) over a period of more than two and a half years. DDC represents a data-based system for steering change projects. The results showed that DDC does not merely introduce new digital tools but fundamentally transforms how organisational change is governed and perceived. The increasing quantification of change processes enables new forms of measurability and efficiency, while simultaneously creating tensions for change managers, who must navigate between professional experience and data-driven expectations.

In addition, the project developed a multidimensional scale for measuring the success of organisational change, integrating process-related, individual, and organisational dimensions. Furthermore, a set of design principles for digital systems in change management was derived, aiming to support the effective, responsible, and acceptance-enhancing design of such technologies.

Additional case studies were conducted across various industries, ranging from manufacturing to retail, for example on the implementation of digital learning platforms and AI-based employee systems. These studies illustrated how the use of digital innovations reshapes role understandings, decision-making logics, and learning processes within organisations.

Overall, the project revealed that digital innovations profoundly transform organisational change – not only by introducing new technological tools, but also by enabling new forms of governance, collaboration, and sensemaking. The interdisciplinary collaboration facilitated a holistic understanding of these developments and generated both theoretical contributions and practice-oriented implications for the design of digitally enabled change processes.

The project results were disseminated through academic and practice-oriented publications, presented at international conferences, integrated into university teaching, and transferred to practitioners through workshops and talks. In this way, Transforming Digitally (DIOW) made a significant contribution to the advancement of digital, data-driven, and at the same time human-centred approaches to change management.

The project was completed on 30 September 2025.

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