Digital Leadership Competencies for Digital Government

Organisations of all types and sizes are having to implement rapid digital transformation and digital government programs in response to the ever-changing technology landscape and to ensure better digital services and outcomes for citizens. Leading digital transformation initiatives has grown increasingly complex, as leaders are often confronted with a plethora of demands that can be conflicting and, at times, difficult to determine and prioritise, especially if any aspect of the capability to transform is missing. Effective digital leadership is essential for digital transformation and digital government success. The alignment of the job role accountabilities and competencies of digital leaders underpins effective digital leadership within a government agency and across the public sector as a whole. This study seeks to understand the role of digital leaders and digital leadership in digital government transformation and the competencies required for digital leadership success. The study draws on established leadership theories – particularly shared leadership theory, to demonstrate that digital leadership is not a single job role or a one-person responsibility. In practice, digital leadership responsibilities are distributed amongst the different roles within the senior leadership structure of the organisations and between public agencies, particularly when it comes to scarce or technically specific roles. A qualitative research paradigm was adopted for this study to understand how digital leadership is undertaken in the public sector context and the competencies required of digital leaders to support agency and cross-government digital transformation initiatives. First, a scoping review of literature was conducted, and a conceptual framework was developed to provide clarity on the definition of digital leadership, theoretical foundations, the competencies required, “place” (position), and contributions of digital leaders. Building on the conceptual framework, a qualitative document analysis of the job descriptions (JDs) and curriculum vitae (CVs) of digital leaders was conducted to provide an enhanced digital leadership competency set for the public sector. Finally, a semi-structured interview of digital leaders in several public sector agencies was conducted, validating and extending the digital leadership framework as a shared (distributed) capability. This study is relevant because it synthesises existing knowledge on digital leadership and extends the knowledge domain by providing conceptual clarity on digital leadership competencies and contributions. On a practical note, the study provides actionable recommendations on how digital leadership job-role accountabilities can be aligned with digital leadership competencies to achieve digital government transformation outcomes in the public sector, at scale and at pace.