Digital Leadership in the Hybrid Work Era: Its Impact on Employee Innovation and the Mediating Role of Digital Readiness

Authors

• Sukhmandeep Kaur

  Niagara College – Welland Campus, Welland, Canada

  deepsukh0852@gmail.com

  ORCID: 0009-0007-5029-5862

• DOI https://doi.org/10.63329/av3nz12314

Abstract

The shift to hybrid work models, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, demands a new paradigm of leadership. Digital leadership, defined as a leader’s ability to leverage technology to empower and guide distributed teams, has emerged as a critical competency. This study examines the impact of digital leadership on employee innovative work behavior within hybrid work settings, with a specific focus on the mediating role of employee digital readiness. A cross-sectional research design was employed, and data was collected via an online survey from 208 professionals working in hybrid models across various sectors in Canada. The data was analyzed using correlation and mediation analysis (PROCESS Macro). The findings reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between digital leadership and employee innovation. Furthermore, digital readiness fully mediated this relationship, indicating that digital leadership fosters innovation primarily by enhancing employees’ competence, confidence, and resources to effectively use digital tools. The study concludes that for organizations to thrive in the new normal, investing in developing digital leaders who can cultivate a digitally ready workforce is not merely an IT strategy but a core business imperative for sustaining innovation.

Keywords: Digital leadership, hybrid work, employee innovation, digital readiness, innovative work behavior, post-pandemic workplace

Copyright & License
© 2025 The Author.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.