change management

Originally developed in the software industry, a method inspired by the mindset of designers has proven to be a broadly applicable approach to solving complex problems. Design thinking holds the potential to contribute positively to social and economic change. A look at its development offers valuable insights for a deeper understanding.

Change is necessary for companies to maintain their competitive edge—both digital and ecological change. But while external support is at hand, the drive for change must come from companies themselves. In this issue of Industry 4.0 Science, experts of the Academic Society for Work and Industrial Organization discuss how the real-world application of innovative technologies lead to resource-efficient manufacturing.

The success of technologies depends not only on their innovative strength and acceptance, but also on their management. Decision-makers evaluate factors like technical framework conditions and organizational requirements, with the demand for flexibility adding to the complexity. Industry 4.0 addresses this with networking, transparency and decentralized decisions. Digital twins, which can be implemented with open source software, play a key role.

Digital transformation processes have a high tendency for delay, exceeding costs, and failure. This poses a significant risk in competitive global markets and shifting business models of entire industries. Successful companies have a different approach to new technologies than more traditional incumbents. Including the workforce in the transformation via change leadership in a digital transformation coaching process can reduce fear and resistance and can lead to a paradigm shift of approaching the digital transformation itself: as an agility driven, infinite game with high potential gain.

Transformative forces present companies with enormous challenges. At the same time, new forms of collaboration and new roles and responsibilities are emerging. Due to the risks associated with change, many employees hold on to old habits and work processes, which can slow down positive developments. The challenge for managers is to recognize this resistance, prevent it and turn it into acceptance or even proactive support.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already an important part of business models and processes of many companies. In the future, AI systems will pro- foundly change our working environment. AI systems can develop completely new potential for companies in a wide variety of sectors and domains - especially in industry. Existing busi- ness models can be optimized along the value chain by optimizing production flows and processes or avoiding production downtimes with predictive maintenance. At the same time, AI systems can enable completely new business models and thus radically change existing mar- ket structures through new players. The AI economy of tomorrow will be more individual, more precise and more sustainable: Competitive value creation without AI will not be possible in many areas of industry.

In times of digital transformation, it is important to counteract the associated challenges in the work world. This requires resilience and flexibility on the part of employees. Resilience has a positive effect on the health and performance of individuals. Therefore, organizations should support their employees in developing a positive attitude towards the unknown and increasing complexity, aspects that are often associated with new technologies. In this article, two exemplary corporate actions for organizational development aiming to strengthen the resilience of employees are explained.