Abstract:

Digitalization’s environmental promise suggests that potential long-term ecological benefits can be achieved by pursuing conflicting short-term economic and social goals. However, this promise appears to be paradoxical as positive changes associated with digitalization often cause negative impacts on sustainability. We approach this paradoxical promise by investigating the collective mechanisms that drive actor contributions characterized by subsequent mission tensions and contradictions, through data collected from the transformational Ruhr area in Germany, where coal mining has ceased and a sustainable, digital future is envisaged. Our grounded, iterative analysis revealed that subconscious processes, such as splitting, projection, denial, and idealization, shaped how actors positioned themselves in relation to paradoxical demands, reflecting underlying psychodynamic elements. This observation allowed us to interpret how unconscious defense mechanisms enable actors to maintain favorable positions while contending with the paradox of sustainable digitalization. Our study thus adds to the literatures on paradox, sustainable digitalization, and industrial transformation in deploying psychodynamics that highlight how, at the macro level, successful transformation amidst a challenging mission requires unbiased holding environments that navigate the relationship between the conscious and subconscious drivers of actor contributions.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Sustainable and Responsible Business

Keywords: responsible business;leadership/management development;grounded theory;interviews

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Dr. Mariya Southey (Eranova)

Biography