The impact of digital leadership on organizational innovation capability and agility: A study in digital hospitals in Turkey

The purpose of the research is to examine the impact of digital leadership on organizations' innovation capabilities and agility. Within the scope of the research, a digital leadership scale was developed to measure the perceptions of individuals working in healthcare service delivery regarding digital leadership, and this scale was tested to investigate its impact on organizations' innovation capabilities and agility. The field research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, which involved scale development, a mixed-method approach was used. The initial step in scale development involved qualitative research through interviews with 14 academics. In the second step of scale development, data were collected from healthcare professionals using a survey technique. In the second phase of the research, the relationship between organizations' innovation capabilities and agility was determined using the developed digital leadership scale. Data were collected via a survey from 391 employees working in managerial units of hospitals affiliated with Turkey's Ministry of Health that qualified for the Level 6 and Level 7 digital hospital certificates in 2023. Data analysis was conducted using the MAXQDA 2022, IBM SPSS 23 and SmartPLS 4.1.0.6 software packages. The impact of digital leadership on organizational innovation and organizational agility was tested using a structural equation model. The research concluded that digital leadership has a positive and strong impact on organizations' innovation capabilities and agility. Furthermore, it was found that participants' levels of digital leadership perception differed significantly based on the digital hospital levels of healthcare organizations and the extent of participants' contributions to the digital hospital process. Based on the research results, recommendations were made for healthcare managers and researchers.