Digital transformation and employee involvement: Employees’ perspective in Saudi Arabia’s public sector

Abstract

DT initiatives have a high failure rate. Thus, this research intends to explore the DT initiatives with specific focus on employee involvement, taking into account that this is Information System (IS) research. Organizations seek to maximize their efficiency and performance. One way of gaining such advantages is through Digital Transformation (DT). However, DT brings with it challenges and complexity. In respect of people, challenges include resistance to change, skills gap, and employee divide. The role of employees must be engaged in order to gain their support and overcome any challenges that arise as a consequence of the transformation. However, current research shows that little is known about this practice. Thus, this research aims to investigate the following research question: How does the current practice of DT initiatives enable employee involvement in Saudi Arabia’s public sector? The research utilized the use of qualitative approach due to the exploratory nature of the study. A total of twenty interviews were conducted that included employees from different public sectors in Saudi Arabia. The research was motivated to study the public sector due to the fact the initiatives are led and funded by the government where there is a need to explore how it is managed by different entities especially when it comes to employee involvement. This research found that the implementation of DT is substandard when employee involvement is not at the required level. The data revealed that employees’ participation in this process was limited to surveys at certain stages, with managers only being consulted, and this is reflected by some of the challenges faced by organizations, such as resistance to change and skills gap. This emphasizes the importance of employee involvement at all stages alongside further research and practice development to enable good practice, increase the success of DT and reduce the cost of DT initiatives failure.