Organisational Cultures in the Digital Age: The Importance of Cultural Ambidexterity and Inclusion

Jan Christoph Mälck and Stephan Schmucker ()
Additional contact information
Jan Christoph Mälck: University of Hamburg
Stephan Schmucker: University of Hamburg

A chapter in Eurasian Business and Economics Perspectives, 2025, pp 141-150 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Digitalisation has been a megatrend with sweeping repercussions for quite some time now. Markets, products, communication, corporate behaviour and entire societies are changing as a consequence. Organisations must respond with a suitable organisational culture—the so-called digital culture. Yet many of them are struggling to bring about the required change. This paper aims to provide an overview and a discussion of the relative merits of the various ways in which organisations may attempt to achieve a digital culture. For that purpose, we draw on existing research into subcultures, ambidexterity and inclusion. We find, for example, that the mere establishment of a so-called ‘digital innovation unit’ is unlikely to yield the desired results if a suitable cultural environment is lacking. It is also questionable whether the creation of a uniform digital organisational culture is really to be aspired. The targeted use of subcultures may be a more viable strategy to meet the cultural requirements of the digital age. This may also help the organisation strike the right balance between exploitation and exploration. Yet a symbiotic relationship among its subcultures can only take effect given proper integration with the organisation’s overall culture.

Keywords: Digitalisation; Organisational culture; Digital culture; Cultural ambidexterity; Subcultures; Inclusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurchp:978-3-031-80256-0_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031802560

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80256-0_9

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().