Identifying Digital Transformation Paradoxes

Lieselot Danneels () and Stijn Viaene
Additional contact information
Lieselot Danneels: Ghent University

Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, 2022, vol. 64, issue 4, No 6, 483-500

Abstract: Abstract In turbulent contexts, organizations face contradictory challenges which give rise to management tensions and paradoxes. Digital transformation is one such context where the disruptive potential of digital technologies demands radical responses from existing organizations. While prior research has recognized the importance of coping with organizational paradoxes, little is known about how to identify them. Although it may be apparent in some settings which paradoxes are at play, other more ambivalent contexts require explicit identification. This study takes a design perspective to identify the relevant paradoxes in a digital transformation context. It presents the results of a 2-year action design research study in collaboration with an organization that chose to explicitly focus on paradoxical tensions for managing its digital transformation. The study’s main contribution is twofold: (1) it presents design knowledge to identify organizational paradoxes; (2) it provides a better understanding of the organizational paradoxes involved in digital transformation. The design knowledge will help others to identify paradoxes when working with an organization and highlights dynamic and collaborative aspects of the identification process. The study also enhances the descriptive understanding of digital transformation paradoxes by showing the importance of learning and belonging tensions and by expressing a different view on what knowledge about paradoxes is, and how it is created and used.

Keywords: Digital transformation; Paradox; Action design research; Design principles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12599-021-00735-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:binfse:v:64:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s12599-021-00735-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/12599

DOI: 10.1007/s12599-021-00735-7

Access Statistics for this article

Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK is currently edited by Martin Bichler

More articles in Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK from Springer, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().