Digital transformation refers to blending new technologies into a business entity, targeting a behavior change, modifying business ideas, cultural behaviors, and improving customer service to beat the changing market threshold. A line manager is a direct individual tasked by the top management of a business firm to attend to a particular employee or a group of employees who share an objective. As Line managers, we mostly take part in employee evaluation, duty allocation, and inspection while reporting to the higher ranks of the business organization. Line managers worldwide determine the cultural behaviors of any businesses they are involved in because they are primarily engaged in creating due to the frequent interactions with employees. With the current modernization rate, companies have been facing a breakdown in most of their normal activities. The world is changing fast, and for any business to remain afloat, there is a need to embrace the current digital transformation quickly. However strategic this is for organizations, digital transformation has come with its fair share of challenges. Line managers have been an entity facing many cultural-related challenges from a new system that has been neutralized by digital transformation.
Line managers are proactive entity that determines the achievement of company goals, and one is the effective management of its internal publics (Venkatesh and Singhal 2022). These achievements are highly determined by the cultures that an organization invests in. The following are some critical management cultures that line managers focus on:
- Communication culture
- Unity culture
- Customer experience culture
In the quest to be technologically upbeat, line managers have the challenge to infuse the fore mentioned cultures in the digital era of operation. Thanks to digital transformation, these loopholes are slowly being filled in, and businesses are getting back to a steady operating state. Organizations are slowly embracing the infusion of digital measures, which has accelerated the rate of adjustment by line managers.
Communication Culture
As the world embraced new media and new technologies in the early 2000s, individuals in organizations slowly started relating to the new opportunities of interaction that were being invented. Distant communication was now made easy, and office work would be shared digitally as we moved into the fall of a decade since the invention of the internet. However, with every employee using channels of their comfort, line managers have had a tough time receiving and complying with intended information, evaluation, and keeping up with their manager-employee relations. The wake of digital transformation has given this situation a different and more satisfying approach. There has been an extensive inclusion of a common information sharing and interaction platform for all employees in organizations. A good example, organizations have now embraced zoom meeting technology as a formal way of distant interaction within their firms. Organizations have also come up with organizational portals whereby employee groups under one line manager can submit their reports and information, making it easier for managers to access and evaluate them.
Unity Culture
Digital transformation has enabled constant interaction with employees at any time. Before integrating digital transformation, many company line managers were struggling to unite their employees. Today, however much the exchange might not be physical, the interaction levels between employees and managers have gone up, which has been an advantage in the quest to achieve unity within the organization. Collaboration between departments, employee groups, and an avenue where all employees are adequately updated is a way to achieve harmony.
Customer Experience Culture
While moving digital, line managers faced the challenge of inadequate customer service tracking. These instances were prompted by the independency in communication that clients had with employees. In the wake of digital transformation and companies embracing digital changes, clients today can make direct comments to the company’s managerial team. Digital transformation has provided the ability to track performance and help the company improve its customer service.
Conclusion
Digital transformation has had a significant impact on the advancement of business performance organizations. Line managers have been an entity that has faced many cultural challenges that will soon be solved by digital transformation. In a nutshell, the new world order has largely prompted the integration of new digital systems in business firms. Companies should be quick to embrace digital transformation or risks being faced. Companies that have embraced digital transformation have had a tremendous positive change in their management and employee relations.
Reference
Venkatesh, R. and Singhal, T., 2022. Articulating Business Model Innovation, Digital Transformation and Managed Services: Case of Digital Transformation as a Service. International Journal of Business and Globalization, 31(4), p.1.
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