Abstract
Purpose:
In digitally intensive organisational settings, large amounts of performance data are generated through predictive analytics, real-time monitoring systems, and enterprise decision support systems. In contrast to the conventional leadership theory, which postulates organisational conflict in the context of informational or communication scarcity, digitally intensive organisational settings can produce disagreement grounded on interpretive divergence rather than informational insufficiency. In this context, the construct of data-saturated dissent is proposed to characterise organisational settings in which decision conflict is grounded on interpretive divergence. The aim of this study is to conceptualise leadership practices that can manage disagreement grounded on interpretive plurality in digitally mediated decision settings.
Design/methodology/approach:
The study uses a mixed-methods approach, which is grounded on critical realism, to explore leadership practices in data-saturated dissent settings. A sequential explanatory research design is proposed to explore the relationship between informational exposure and interpretive disagreement, which will be followed by a qualitative exploration of leadership practices that can manage integrative reasoning.
Findings:
The findings from the conceptual exploration suggest that digitally intensive organisational settings can produce disagreement among organisational actors who derive divergent analytical conclusions from similar data sets. In such settings, leadership may require practices grounded on interpretive integration.
Originality/value:
The proposed construct of data-saturated dissent extends leadership theory beyond informational symmetry assumptions, which is a significant contribution to emerging leadership theory on digitally intensive organisational settings.
Keywords:
Digital leadership; Data analytics; Decision-making; Organisational dissent; Mixed methods; Platform organisations