Ifenthaler, D., & Egloffstein, M. (2020). Development and implementation of a maturity model of digital transformation. TechTrends, 64, 302–309. doi:10.1007/s11528-019-00457-4
The adoption and integration of digital technology in organizations are crucial not only for communication, administration and management, but also a meaningful asset to support learning and teaching as well as organizational change. However, existing models of educational technology adoption and integration predominantly focus on school settings as well as on individual factors explaining the assimilation processes. Therefore, this research intents to fill the gap of a holistic model of technology adoption in educational organizations through developing a theoretically grounded maturity model. In a case study, the maturity model of technology adoption was implemented in an European educational organization. The study included N = 222 employees in two waves of data collection. Findings indicate a positive attitude towards IT and digital media within the respective organization. Overall, the educational organization was classified as digitally pragmatist. It is suggested that maturity model development should be highly transparent, following a clear methodology. Model evaluation and validation should be carried out before transfer and generalization can take place. Factors mediating digital maturity and organizational performance on individual (i.e., motives, attitudes) and on organizational level (i.e., organizational culture) should be taken into consideration. For successful technology adoption processes, organizational and human resource development ought to go hand in hand, supported by a sound communication strategy.
