The Long Shadows from Digital Transformation Initiatives: A Research Agenda

Structuring workplaces within a socio-technical paradigm aims for both efficiency and worker wellbeing. However, with the swift integration of digital and emerging technologies, maintaining this balance has become demanding. Current trends suggest a lag in the social system's adaptation to rapid IT investments, resulting in reduced job engagement and notable Digital Transformation (DT) setbacks. To address the unrealized potential, this study advocates integrating the socio-technical approach with the socio-economic theory of hidden costs. We quantify these concealed expenditures from DT initiatives in nine Scandinavian companies. We introduce the concept of a 'shadow' to illustrate how economic focus in DT-projects can obscure aspects of social costs. Our objective is to delineate a research agenda that underscores a balance between economic and humanistic aims within the sociotechnical context.