Jul 2026· International Journal of Applied Research in Business and Management· Vol 7· 0 citations
TL;DR
A systematic literature review SLR was conducted, drawing on seventy-seven peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2026, showing that digital transformation is not merely a technical process but a profound organisational shift that demands alignment between strategy, culture, and people.
Abstract
This study explores how strategic management and leadership are reshaping organisational success in the era of digital transformation. The aim of the study is to understand how leaders can guide their organisations through the complexity of technological disruption while building resilience and creating long-term value. To achieve this, a systematic literature review SLR was conducted, drawing on seventy-seven peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2026 across sectors such as banking, healthcare, manufacturing, education, public services, and SMEs. The review shows that digital transformation is not merely a technical process but a profound organisational shift that demands alignment between strategy, culture, and people. Strategic management is moving away from rigid, efficiency-driven models toward approaches that build dynamic capabilities and foster ambidexterity balancing the need to exploit current strengths while exploring new opportunities. Leadership stands out as a crucial enabler, with transformational and participatory styles shown to enhance employee engagement, build psychological safety, and inspire innovation in hybrid and remote work environments. The findings also emphasise the importance of strategic agility and innovation ecosystems in enabling collaboration and co-creation across organisational boundaries. Despite these opportunities, the study highlights ongoing challenges, including cultural resistance, skill gaps, and misalignment between digital investments and organisational readiness. Addressing these issues calls for leaders who can communicate transparently, invest in continuous learning, and embed sustainability and ethics into their digital agendas. In doing so, strategic leadership becomes not only the driver of digital transformation but also the safeguard that ensures it delivers enduring value for organisations, employees, and society.
The main aim of the study was to critically evaluate whether transformational leadership can be a strategy to address organisational inertia in South African Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs). In recent years, globalisation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the increasing demand for digital competencies have significantly reshaped the higher education landscape, requiring institutions to foster innovation and adaptability. Many institutions continue to experience organisational inertia, manifested through resistance to change, high staff turnover, and reduced motivation, which are often associated with transactional leadership styles that prioritise stability over innovation. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study employed unobtrusive research methods through documentary analysis, complemented by semi-structured interviews with selected participants from a South African PHEI. Data were analysed using ATLAS.ti (version 2023) to generate and refine themes through the code-and-retrieve function. The findings confirmed that transformational leadership, characterised by inspiration, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration, plays a critical role in mitigating organisational inertia by enhancing employee engagement and fostering adaptability. The study concluded that developing transformational leadership capacity is essential for PHEIs to remain competitive, responsive, and future-focused within an increasingly complex educational landscape. All literature cited was published between 2019 and 2024.
Alesia Schutte· Journal of Leadership, Strat...· 0 citations
In digital transformation contexts, organizational change remains challenging especially when employee resistance is underestimated and change management efforts are fragmented. This study presents a systematic review on organizational change with a focus on resistance dynamics, change management frameworks, and the role of emerging technologies in technology-enabled transformation. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, 83 peer-reviewed articles were screened and analyzed using thematic and bibliometric approaches. This review integrates resistance to change, change management models, and digital transformation within a unified socio-technical perspective. The findings show that resistance is shaped by interrelated individual, organizational, and cultural factors. On the other hand, successful transformation is consistently associated with transparent communication, inclusive leadership, psychological safety, and cultural alignment. Moreover, the study shows that technologies such as gamification, AI-powered chatbots, and virtual and augmented reality can strengthen engagement, learning, and participation when embedded within broader change management processes. The bibliometric analysis identifies major intellectual trends, influential contributors, and emerging directions in the field. Overall, the study offers an integrated theoretical and practical foundation for understanding how human and technological factors jointly shape organizational change in digital transformation.
Ryan Alshaikh, Israa Al-Khafaf, Vian Ahmed et al.· International Journal of Eng...· 0 citations
This article examines how contemporary business leadership can integrate transformational, digital, inclusive, and ethical orientations to generate adaptive and sustainable organizational performance. It employs a qualitative literature review—not a systematic literature review—of reputable journal articles published mainly since 2020. Sources were purposively selected for their relevance to leadership, team management, digital transformation, organizational change, ethics, and sustainability, and were synthesized thematically and interpretively. The review shows that leadership does not affect performance directly or uniformly. Its influence operates through trust, psychological safety, empowerment, engagement, learning, and knowledge-sharing mechanisms. Transformational leadership supplies direction and change energy; digital leadership connects strategy, technology, data, and work design; inclusive and shared leadership broaden voice, collaboration, and innovation; and ethical-sustainable leadership protects legitimacy, accountability, and stakeholder value. The article proposes an integrated leadership capability model comprising strategic sensemaking, human–technology orchestration, participation architecture, ethical stewardship, and adaptive learning. The model emphasizes contextual fit, behavioral consistency, and supporting organizational systems. Practically, organizations should develop leaders through capability portfolios and multidimensional performance metrics rather than relying on a single idealized leadership style
L. Judijanto· Multitech Journal of Science...· 0 citations
Sustainable employee and organisational performance in the public education sector is shaped by an interdependent system of leadership competence, human resource practices, organisational culture, skills development, knowledge sharing, communication structures, and contextual resource constraints. These drivers are particularly salient at Senior Management Service (SMS) level, where strategic leadership, policy implementation, accountability, and institutional governance converge. This qualitative study explored the interconnected drivers of sustainable performance through the lived experiences of senior managers within the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Using semi-structured interviews, the study captured nuanced insights into the enablers and barriers influencing the implementation and functionality of the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS). Thematic analysis revealed that while PMDS is intended to enhance accountability and continuous improvement, its sustainability is undermined by limited leadership commitment, inadequate developmental support, fragmented internal communication, skills mismatches, weak knowledge-sharing mechanisms, entrenched compliance-driven organisational cultures, and persistent financial and human resource constraints. These interrelated challenges constrain both individual capability and organisational capacity, weakening the translation of employee performance into sustainable organisational outcomes. In addressing the study’s objectives, the findings support an integrated, systems-oriented approach to performance management that prioritises visible and sustained leadership engagement, competency-based and continuous capacity development, learning-oriented organisational cultures, digitally enabled performance and knowledge management systems, and strategic resource alignment. Addressing these drivers holistically is essential for fostering sustainable employee and organisational performance and contributes to ongoing debates on strengthening performance management and human resource sustainability in public sector institutions within developing country contexts.
Bafana Atolate Zwane, Sabelo Mpungose· International Journal of Sus...· 0 citations
Servant leadership has been widely examined and investigated for its influence on employee-level outcomes, which include trust, engagement and satisfaction, among other dimensions, but its potential to drive industry-level transformation remains underexplored. This study investigates how servant leadership facilitates industrial resilience and adaptability with particular interest in employee innovation, trust, and engagement in Zimbabwe, which is a transitional economy facing various structural crises. The study is anchored in Servant Leadership Theory, complemented by Organisational Resilience Theory. The research positions servant leadership as the central explanatory construct, with employee engagement, organisational culture, and technological adaptability serving as the mechanisms through which transformation occurs.
The study adopted a qualitative exploratory design and draws on insights from industry experts to examine how servant leadership pushes collaborative cultures, enhances employee commitment and innovation, and enables technological flexibility. The findings of this study extend servant leadership scholarship beyond micro-level outcomes by putting Zimbabwe as a theoretically meaningful context, where value-based leadership can catalyse industrial renewal. The study contributes theoretically by offering a contextual extension and process model that links servant leadership to industry transformation through employee engagement, culture, innovation, and technological adaptability. The study practically highlights servant leadership’s relevance in crisis-driven economies, providing actionable insights for managers and policymakers seeking to rebuild trust, foster innovation, and achieve sustainable industrial growth.
Crossman Mayavo, Agustine Mataba· Journal of Leadership, Strat...· 0 citations
The growing reliance on geographically dispersed workforces has made it essential to understand what drives effectiveness in virtual project teams (VPTs). This study examines the determinants of VPT effectiveness by investigating leadership strategies, internal team processes, external environmental influences and the integration of these elements within Australia's technology sector. A qualitative, interpretivist design was adopted, drawing on semi-structured interviews with ten professionals managing or working in virtual project teams across three Australian technology firms. Data were analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke's six-phase approach, interpreted through the lens of Transformational Leadership Theory and the Technology–Organisation–Environment (TOE) framework. Findings identify leadership as the most decisive determinant of effectiveness, expressed through deliberate communication, trust-building, adaptability and the strategic use of technology for recognition as well as coordination. Internal processes such as role clarity, transparent performance monitoring, knowledge sharing and continuous feedback formed the operational backbone of team functioning, while external factors including organisational culture, client expectations, economic conditions and cultural diversity shaped priorities and working norms. Crucially, effectiveness did not emerge from any single factor but from the deliberate integration of leadership, process and environmental responsiveness, with technology functioning as the connective infrastructure. The study concludes that virtual project team effectiveness is best understood as a systems-level property rather than a collection of isolated best practices, and offers practical recommendations for leadership development, process design and technology alignment in distributed technology-sector teams.
Amarachi Nancy Okeke· World Journal of Advanced Re...· 0 citations