A research on the role of digital leaders in the formation of digital competence in Mersin province

The concept of digital is often used to characterize electronic processes and tools. Apart from the generally known perception, digital also means the processing and display of data in an electronic way instead of just electronic devices. From this point of view, the concept of digital is usually the process of making sense of two-component data that continues in an endless cycle. In the digital information era, since information provides information and information provides wisdom, converting data into information by processing is one of the most important actions performed. Information is the accelerator and trigger of transformation. A different way to sustain life in this mentioned process is to adapt to digital transformation. In this context, the concepts of digital transformation, digital education, digital society and digital competence are very important in the digital information period. In the work we have done, digital society and transformation are the main issues. In addition, it is a fact that there are always people at the center of these concepts. Digital leaders, who occupy very important positions in the digital information era, are leaders who have a global perspective, have digital literacy, can work together with various age groups and cultures, are participatory and open to innovation. In this sense, this thesis aims to explore the impact of digital leaders with digital competence in workflow processes by emphasizing the critical importance of digital transformation for businesses. Within the scope of the thesis, 51 participants working in the different technology-based businesses were interviewed in Mersin province. In the thesis, which has a mixed research design, qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously from both online platform and face-to-face. The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS 22.0. As a result of the analysis, it has been seen that businesses in Mersin are aware of digital transformation, digital leaders have created a digital organizational culture in this process, and the digital generation with digital competence has been tried to be integrate into the businesses.