The Showcase for Women Leadership in Digitalization Era of the Workplace

Introduction

Leadership is the concept of guiding a community under specific conditions and purposes, within established rules. It stands out as one of the most crucial concepts influencing the survival and success of organizations. Due to the rapidly changing business environments in today's world and the significant impact of digitalization, leadership is not merely a management ability but also a critical factor for organizational success and sustainability. Consequently, leaders should be aware of the effects of digitalization on leadership and enhance their leadership accordingly in this context.

Digital transformation can be defined as a process aimed at enhancing an asset by triggering significant changes in its characteristics through a combination of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies. The digital age constitutes a media where knowledge and information transfers could be performed. With digitalization, the process of digital transformation unfolds, leading to innovations. It is evident that these innovations also affect the business world. To conduct and facilitate business effectively, organizations must adapt to the digital transformation brought about by technology. One crucial aspect of digitalization is its influence on decision-making processes. Digitalization improves coordination and cooperation within an organization, thereby increasing efficiency and competitiveness. In order to survive in this competitive environment, leaders, in particular, must guide their organizations through technology, master digital information and communication channels, and support employees in acquiring these competencies by directing them through these changes. In the era of digitalization, most workplaces utilize digital communication tools for interaction between managers and employees. With digitalization, communication takes place through online channels that provide audio or video communication options, rather than face-to-face interactions. This digitalization change has also led to some changes in the leadership communication of managers. Interaction and communication between leaders and employees have shifted to the virtual world. In this context, verbal communication patterns have transformed into written communication patterns. Digitalization has facilitated a more flexible working environment for employees and leaders. While face-to-face communication allows leaders to convey messages more strongly and clearly through gestures, voice intonations, and body language, digitalization enables them to organize interactions through videos and conferences. Moreover, charismatic leadership approaches can also be employed to transfer motivation and performance in a digitalized work environment. Leaders need to possess characteristics such as the ability to set a vision, effective communication and problem-solving skills, motivation, strong decision-making abilities, delegation, and empathy. While these traits can be found in individuals irrespective of gender, in a significant part of a society, the concept of leadership and the personal attributes associated with a leader are often linked to masculine characteristics.

In many parts of the world, the rates of women's employment and the sectors they work in exhibit variation. The proportion of women in leadership positions, especially in workplaces, varies depending on the developmental stage of countries. However, the contribution of women and men to the labor force progresses at an equal rate according to the level of economic development. Despite this equal gender distribution, gender-based wage differences persist among employees. Despite the significant presence of women in the workforce today, the number of women in top leadership positions worldwide remains very small. The reason for this situation is not the lack of competence or failure on the part of women in their careers but, unfortunately, the existence of the glass ceiling practice in companies. When examining the reasons for this situation, the primary issues are stereotyping and gender bias. Biases suggesting that women's gender roles are incompatible with leadership persist. However, women inherently possess crucial characteristics, notably in their ability to successfully navigate empathy, management, and multitasking. Some countries are addressing this issue by implementing gender quotas for corporate positions. This chapter will extensively discuss the intersection and interrelationships between leadership, digitalization, and women's leadership. The impact of digitalization on leadership and women's leadership in the age of technology will also be examined in this context.