Leader’s digital competence in motivating employees during the Covid-19 pandemic – research findings

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to illustrate to what extent, during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders representing enterprises operating in Poland, use IT in motivating employees. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a literature review, secondary materials in the form of research reports, describing the level of digital competence of Poles, employees and leaders, as well as own research. The results of pre-pandemic research indicate a low level of digital competence of a leader. With reference to this research, the paper presents part of the results of the author's study on digital leadership. Its implementation took place in 2021. 163 companies, located in Poland, participated in it. The study used a diagnostic survey method, the CAWI technique and the author's survey questionnaire. Findings: The results of the survey indicate that there is a fairly good level of digital competence among leaders, at least in terms of motivation. No correlation is noted between the use of IT in motivating employees with the scope of the company, the form of ownership of the company, the owner's capital, the size of the company and the respondent (manager, IT manager, owner, board member). Only in the case of the degree of computerization of the company does such a correlation appear. Research limitations/implications: When interpreting the results presented in the paper, it is worth bearing in mind some limitations accompanying the study. The first concerns the difficulty of identifying whether the surveyed managers can be called leaders. The second limitation is related to the use of self-assessment in assessing the digital competence of managers. In this regard, it would be worthwhile to conduct a survey of employees to verify the level of digital competence declared by managers. Originality/value: The paper deals with the use of IT in motivating employees, an under 27 identified but important problem, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the study can be a guide to what factors to pay attention to when improving the digital competence of the leader and employees.