Taking employees’ fears seriously

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - Digital transformation and the associated changes in operational processes can trigger fears among employees that have a negative impact on their engagement at work. Companies must actively counteract these fears to prevent transformation processes from failing. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by the Universities of Göttingen and Groningen on more than 1,000 employees in the finance organization of a multinational company in Germany. The results have been published in the Journal of Management Accounting Research . New technical possibilities and more efficient processes - the pressure to change digitally is great in corporate finance departments. The automation of routine tasks or the use of new approaches to data analysis enable more efficient and effective workflows. Among employees, however, digital transformation can simultaneously give rise to fears.