Abstract:

Organizational changes occur in different forms and to different extent, and lately digital
advancements have resulted in a wave of digital-organizational changes, which is often referred to as digitalization. One aspect that is especially important in regards to organizational change is the culture within the organization; particularly to have insight in the culture in order to facilitate the change but also learn to work in new ways. Studies show that the digitalization may have a negative impact on employee’s wellbeing, in part to coworkers in a lesser extent working face-to-face. Knowledge intensive firms, such as consulting firms, can with regards to their nature be perceived as benefiting from the digitalization, with an emphasis on the flexibility and efficiency it allows. Simultaneously, the digitalization in knowledge intensive firms also leads to less face-to-face interaction between coworkers, as well as between employees and customers, and instead a higher degree of screen-to-face interaction. As the digital-organizational changes continue to advance it is of great importance for organizations to highlight how its organizational culture is affected by the digitalization, both in gaining insight in the culture itself but mainly to facilitate future change. Also, organizational culture can facilitate learning or be a major barrier for it depending on the values it encourages.

While the importance of these issues has been widely acknowledged in earlier research, to date the linkages between organizational culture, learning, and digital innovation have scarcely been examined in relation to each other. Considering Organizational Learning (OL) as one of the most crucial themes in this new context, the present study aims to identify and illustrate how learning can be understood regarding the relation between organizational learning and digital transformation of the workplace. We therefore focus study the links between organizational culture and organizational learning during digital transformation of the workplace. We use concept from (OL) literature and Organizational Culture –theory as analytical framework for our study. The empirical data was gathered with semi-structured interviews with employees in three knowledge intense-firms in Sweden that were “forced” to increase their digital transformation of their workplaces due to Covid-19. In total, 25 interviews have been conducted. The findings illustrates how the employees perceive and define organizational culture and how it forms both positive and negative attitudes towards the digital transformation of the workplace. Also, the study illustrates how leadership in many ways is responsible for maintaining a positive culture, which also speaks to the existing insight in the organizational culture. The study contributes to existing literature by providing illustrations about how a learning-oriented culture can enhance organizational learning and that leadership has a crucial role to play in that relationship.

Keywords:

Organizational learning, organizational culture, digital transformation, workplace learning.