Introduction

The digital economy has sparked a significant revolution within organizations, driving businesses to adopt new digital technologies and align their operations with digital transformation demands (Ceipek et al. 2021). This transformation not only impacts employees’ work experiences but also reshapes their perceptions and evaluations of enterprise digital capability (Meske and Junglas, 2021). While an enterprise’s digital capabilities may be relatively objective, employees’ evaluations are influenced by various factors and can vary widely (Ullrich et al. 2023). These evaluations are closely linked to employees’ adoption of new technologies, skill acquisition (Sousa and Rocha, 2019; Ostmeier and Strobel, 2022), and proactive adaptation to new work processes (Xie et al. 2019), all of which are essential for the successful implementation of digital transformation.

Current research on digital transformation primarily centers around examining the influence of digital transformation on aspects such as organizational structure (Fernandez-Vidal et al. 2022), innovation performance (Arshad et al. 2024), business model (Liu et al. 2024) and human resource management (HRM) practices (Dabić et al. 2023), with an emphasis on macro and meso-level examinations. At the micro level, existing studies tend to concentrate on more conventional topics such as employees’ digital technology acceptance (Schneider and Sting, 2020), usage (Ahn and Chen, 2022), and digital literacy (Cetindamar et al. 2021). However, there is a scarcity of direct exploration into employees’ subjective evaluations, which are crucial for enterprises to understand employees’ recognition and support for ongoing digital initiatives (Ye et al. 2024). Moreover, employees’ feedback embedded in the evaluation offers valuable insights into the practical challenges faced during the transformation (Solberg et al. 2020). By considering these evaluations, enterprises can optimize resource allocation and make necessary adjustments (Van Der Schaft et al. 2022), ensuring that transformation measures are targeted and feasible, ultimately enhancing the enterprise’s overall digital capability and improving the success of the transformation initiative in a “bottom-up” manner.

Existing studies have emphasized the importance of focusing on individual employee experiences to promote successful digital transformation (Vial, 2019; Schneider and Sting, 2020; Ahn and Chen, 2022). Notably, employees’ evaluations of enterprise digital capability are complex and cannot be merely classified as positive or negative; they are influenced by various factors, including utilitarian, functional, anthropocentric, traditional, and playful dimensions (Schneider and Sting, 2020). Additionally, individual factors such as job autonomy, relationships with colleagues (Meske and Junglas, 2021), and inherent resource endowments (Gfrerer et al. 2021) significantly affect employees’ willingness to support digital transformation. This transformation triggers shifts in employees’ cognitive frameworks (Verhoef et al. 2021), emotional states, and behavioral patterns, underscoring the need for enterprises to accurately assess employee evaluations.

As an organizational change that challenges the basic traditional organizational management assumptions (Hanelt et al. 2021), enterprise digital transformation requires participation from employees. Previous research on organizational change suggests that organizations can enhance employees’ acceptance by clarifying the vision, implementation plan, and incentives for change to employees, providing them with sufficient and effective information about the change, and helping them to understand and commit to the organizational goals (Wanberg and Banas, 2000). When employees perceive they have impacts on the change, their willingness to support the change increases accordingly (Parker and Grote, 2020). Impact refers to an employee’s perception of the actual external consequences resulting from their actions or contributions within the workplace (Spreitzer, 1995; Maynard et al. 2012; Tangirala and Ramanujam, 2012). Employees who view themselves and their work as impactful are more likely to believe in their ability to achieve specific work goals (Spreitzer, 1995; Maynard et al. 2012). The present study proposes that the achievement of employee impact can be facilitated through the strategic application of work design principles. Work design theory (Oldham et al. 1976; Humphrey et al. 2007) emphasizes that organizations should employ specific design approaches to effectively manage and align the process of goal attainment. It underscores that optimizing working conditions and empowering employees can evoke a heightened sense of identification and meaning in their work, thereby enhancing their overall engagement and performance (Xie et al. 2019). When employees perceive the impact of their contributions, they subsequently experience a heightened sense of agency within the organization, which in turn motivates them to invest greater effort and engagement in the digital transformation process. Thereby, enterprise necessitates offering employees’ perceived impact through effective work design (Parker and Grote, 2022), igniting their enthusiasm and participation.

Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001; Hobfoll et al. 2018) posits that individuals are motivated by an innate drive to preserve and accumulate resources. Accordingly, strong perceptions of impact enhance employees’ belief in gaining additional resources through sustained work engagement. These resources can be personal, such as skill enhancement, or professional, like increased workplace status (Nadeem et al. 2024). Anticipating resource accumulation (Koopmann et al. 2016), employees who view their work as impactful are more likely to engage deeply in the transformation process and positively evaluate enterprise digital capabilities, as this indicates greater opportunities to enhance their work-related resources.

In addition, from the perspective of work design theory, empowering leadership can be conceptualized as an internal social support factor (Humphrey et al. 2007) that facilitates the sharing of authority with employees. This leadership approach involves the strategic assignment of autonomy to employees and teams, with the aim of stimulating a heightened sense of responsibility and internal drive among the workforce (Cheong et al. 2019). From COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001), empowering leadership is a positive work resource available to employees. By granting employees greater decision-making latitude and control over their work, empowering leaders can enable individuals to better utilize and accumulate valuable personal resources. Further, as digital transformation indicates that employees need to take on roles beyond their traditional job descriptions, changing work boundaries and job tasks can lead to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes in employees (Weber et al. 2022). Cognitive adjustment at work (Malo et al. 2016) represents a proactive process of employees’ efforts to adjust their self-cognition in response to novel work environments. It serves as a metric to assess the psychological adaptability of employees in the context of enterprise digital transformation. Hence, whether employees adjust their cognitive approaches and strategies to cope with various work scenarios, and the outcomes of such adjustments, warrant attention (Montani et al. 2020).

Taken together, drawing from work design theory and COR theory, this study endeavors to delve into the boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms between employees’ perceived impact and their evaluation of enterprise digital capability in the context of digital transformation. This study aims to promote theoretical contributions in the following aspects: First, this study emphasizes the importance of examining employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability during digital transformation. Assessing employees’ confidence, recognition, and acceptance of the digital transformation initiatives not only provides a nuanced understanding of this phenomenon, but also reveals potential pathways to deepen employees’ active participation and engagement. Furthermore, this study delves into the antecedents and underlying mechanisms that contribute to differences in employees’ evaluations, thereby enriching the explorations on the cognitive and attitudinal processes that shape individual-level perceptions toward enterprise digital transformation. Second, from the perspective of work design, this study proposes that optimizing traditional work design approaches to enhance employee impact represents a feasible organizational strategy to assist employees in coping with the new opportunities and challenges presented by digital transformation. Further, incorporating the tenet of COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001), the study reveals the mechanisms through which employee impact can lead to more favorable evaluation of enterprise digital capability. In addition, the study examines the contingency effect of empowering leadership, which confirms the need to re-conceptualize the value of empowering leadership practices in the digital transformation era. This addresses scholars’ call for paying greater attention to employee attitudes during digital transformation, particularly at the leadership level. The study demonstrates that under empowering leadership, employees’ cognitive adjustments can direct their perceptions of their own impact to positively influence their evaluation of enterprise digital capability. This finding underscores the pivotal role of employee cognitive factors as individual-level mechanisms during organizational-level digital transformation. Ultimately, this study contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding of employee management issues within the context of enterprise-wide digital transformation, offering insights that could inform more effective HRM strategies and interventions.

Theoretical background and hypotheses development

Research on how employees perceive digital transformation

Enterprise digital transformation necessitates significant adjustments by employees in response to changes in technologies and organizational values (Cetindamar et al. 2021). While organizations may view digital transformation as an essential strategic choice, it would be imprudent to assume that employees will consistently have positive attitudes toward these initiatives (Schneider and Sting, 2020). Misalignments between organizational goals and employee attitudes often arise because employees may not fully recognize the importance of digital transformation for organizational success (Chen and Tian, 2022; Quach et al. 2022).

Employees might perceive job insecurity (Van Der Schaft et al. 2022), environmental uncertainties, increased job demands, or privacy concerns associated with transformation efforts, leading to negative and resistant attitudes (Fugate et al. 2012; Stanley et al. 2005; Venus et al. 2019). Such resistance may jeopardize the success of transformation initiatives, even if they are well-designed and implemented (Rousseau and ten Have, 2022). Empirical evidence supports this: for instance, a survey conducted by Davenport and Ronanki (2018) found that 47% of 152 AI projects faced collaboration challenges between AI systems and employees. Additionally, the Observation Report on China’s Digital Economy revealed that while 64% of executives supported AI projects, only 12% achieved effective collaboration between employees and AI.

It is also essential to acknowledge the inherent diversity and complexity of employees’ perceptions (Nadeem et al. 2024). Employees may not support the organization’s overarching goals regarding digital transformation; instead, their acceptance and engagement might stem from pragmatic, goal-oriented mindsets or a more utilitarian approach, rather than genuine endorsement of the strategy (Schneider and Sting, 2020). This complexity highlights the need for organizations to consider individual differences and needs when advancing digital transformation. Neglecting this may create informational gaps, hindering employees’ understanding of the intentions behind transformation initiatives (Ahn and Chen, 2022). Conversely, when employees genuinely recognize the importance of digital transformation for the organization’s future and see their value in the process (Chen and Tian, 2022; Weber et al. 2022), they are more likely to engage actively. This increased engagement enhances their understanding of enterprise digital capabilities, leading to positive evaluation and serving as a strong catalyst for the successful implementation of transformation initiatives.

Existing research suggests that organizations can foster employee acceptance of transformation by effectively communicating strategic digital initiatives and the urgent need for productivity upgrades (Jalonen et al. 2018). However, such approaches may appear abstract or confusing to front-line employees (Schneider and Sting, 2020). While enterprises target significant changes through digital transformation, employees are primarily concerned with the stability of their roles and their engagement in the process (Van Der Schaft et al. 2022). They tend to evaluate digital transformation based on practical, micro-level factors, such as management processes, work tasks, and leadership styles (Berson et al. 2021). Thus, to effectively communicate the rationale for digital transformation, organizations must adopt an employee-centric approach, focusing on the practical realities experienced by employees in their daily work. By prioritizing employees’ evaluations, enterprises can accurately assess the recognition and support of their digital capabilities (Solberg et al. 2020). It is crucial to explore the antecedents of these evaluations to foster a deeper understanding of employees’ psychological changes during digital transformation.

Work design theory

The job characteristics model, originally proposed by Oldham et al. (1976), is a seminal framework in the field of work design theory. This model focuses on the inherent attributes of the work itself and posits that by enhancing five core work characteristics—skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback—organizations can foster improvements in employees’ intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and performance outcomes. Expanding upon this foundational framework, Humphrey et al. (2007) further elaborated on work design characteristics, suggesting that it encompasses three distinct dimensions: motivational factors, social characteristics, and work context characteristics. The motivational factors include task variety, information processing, job complexity, specialization, and problem-solving. The social characteristics encompass interdependence, feedback from others, social support from the organization, and interactions outside the immediate work environment. The work context characteristics refer to specific environmental factors that influence task execution and performance. Moreover, Humphrey et al. (2007) categorized the outcomes of work design into four broader aspects: behavioral outcomes, attitudinal outcomes, role perceptions, and physical and mental well-being. These multifaceted outcome variables were subsequently integrated into the extended theoretical framework of work design.

As enterprises are continuously pursuing digital transformation initiatives (Meske and Junglas, 2021), the emergent work characteristics of organizational boundarylessness, multifaceted job requirements, and the imperative for continuous learning have rendered the full standardization of work increasingly challenging (Xie et al. 2019). We posit deliberate work design allows enterprises to emphasize the strategic value of their digital transformation initiatives, helping employees recognize the importance of their tasks and enhancing their sense of impact (Rosso et al. 2010). This theory also underscores the need to respect and highlight employees’ uniqueness in the design process, fostering their perception of being essential to the organization’s digital transformation agenda (Parker and Grote, 2020). When employees see themselves as impactful contributors, they are more likely to feel a sense of belonging and purpose, which benefits organizational advancement.

In addition, leaders play a critical complementary role in work design (Schneider and Sting, 2020) by providing social support (Humphrey et al. 2007) and aligning strategic goals with workforce dynamics. Empowering leadership has been shown to enhance employees’ self-worth, job satisfaction, and capacity for growth during digital transformation (Cheong et al. 2019). By offering support, autonomy, and developmental opportunities, empowering leaders help employees navigate the challenges of digital transformation (Cheong et al. 2019; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). This holistic approach aligns employee motivation with organizational goals, improving evaluations of digital capability and commitment to transformation initiatives.

Conservation of resources theory

The tenet of COR theory posits that individuals are inherently driven to establish, cultivate, and maintain the resources they possess (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001). The positive resource gain spirals in COR theory highlight the inherent tendency of resourceful individuals to invest their assets in the pursuit of related, yet valuable resources (Hobfoll, 2001; Hobfoll et al. 2018). This cyclical process leads to an upward trajectory of resource accrual, which in turn enhances individuals’ overall capacity to manage stress, achieve goals, and thrive in various life domains (Hobfoll et al. 2018).

As COR theory evolves, the intimate connection between an individual’s resource adjustment and the specific organizational context has come to the forefront (Halbesleben et al. 2014). An individual’s resources do not exist independently of the external environment but are also influenced by the resources released by situational factors (Hobfoll et al. 2018). Hence, we argue COR theory provides a conceptual framework for explaining the relationship and underlying mechanisms between employees’ impact and their evaluation of enterprise digital capability. Employees’ perception of their resources and resource variation is the central in the process.

Impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation

Employees’ recognition of the digital strategy is particularly important to promote the successful implementation of enterprise digital transformation (Weber et al. 2022). As one of the key manifestations of recognition, employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability is crucial for predicting their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral responses to transformation initiatives, which ultimately exerts a “bottom-up” influence that facilitates the smooth progression and successful implementation of digital transformation (Vial, 2019; Schneider and Sting, 2020; Weber et al. 2022). Even within the same enterprise, employees’ evaluations of digital capability are shaped by a multitude of factors and can vary significantly (Ullrich et al. 2023). Among these factors, the role of employee impact is particularly noteworthy. In the context of enterprise digital transformation, employees’ perception of their own impact (Maynard et al. 2012; Tangirala and Ramanujam, 2012) reflects the importance of the role they believe they play in the transformation process, as well as the extent to which they can contribute to realizing digital transformation goals.

Work design theory offers a well-founded theoretical basis for explaining why designing impactful work can effectively address employees’ needs and motivations (Xie et al. 2019). When employees perceive that they can have tangible impacts on the transformation process - such as when organizations assign them tasks that significantly contribute to organizational goals - they are likely to feel more valued and less replaceable (Rosso et al. 2010). This recognition fosters greater employee engagement and investment, thereby providing them with enhanced opportunities to observe the tangible realities and notable advancements resulting from digital transformation. Therefore, they tend to demonstrate greater commitment, invest more effort, and evaluate the enterprise digital capability more positively.

COR theory also elucidates the relationship between employee impact and their evaluation of enterprise digital capability. An employee’s certainty in their impact fosters a willingness to grow alongside the enterprise and support its digital transformation endeavors. In this context, employees who perceive themselves as impactful are confident in their ability to secure additional resources (Rosso et al. 2010), thereby fulfilling their needs for resource acquisition and accumulation (Hobfoll et al. 2018). As a result, they actively engage in the transformation process, viewing it as beneficial and conducive to both individual and organizational development. This engagement enhances their access to information that facilitates the transformation, subsequently leading to a more favorable evaluation of enterprise’s digital capability. Moreover, positively evaluating the enterprise digital capability serves as a resource conservation strategy for employees (Halbesleben et al. 2014), as it ensures that their efforts yield valuable returns. Impactful employees tend to exhibit heightened job involvement and offer more positive and constructive evaluations of enterprise digital capability. This response arises from their belief that active participation and engagement (Ullrich et al. 2023) in this process can lead to development rewards.

Additionally, as employees adapt to changes in work tasks and environmental conditions (Cetindamar et al. 2021) resulting from work design, those who perceive themselves as impactful tend to be more self-motivated in seeking resources to meet the demands of digital work. They are likely to recognize their role as essential during the digital transformation, thereby affirming their position within the enterprise. They often view the achievements of the transformation as direct results of their own efforts, perceiving the successful organizational transition as a reflection of their intrinsic value, which fosters a sense of psychological ownership (Schäper et al. 2023). This psychological ownership enhances employees’ emotional attachment and commitment, aligning them more closely with the organizational goals and vision (Schäper et al. 2023). It also boosts their job satisfaction and acknowledgment of digital transformation initiatives, encouraging them to adopt a more proactive and engaged approach (Ye et al. 2024). Consequently, they develop higher expectations for enterprise digital capability and provide more favorable evaluations.

Simultaneously, due to the reciprocal relationship between employees and the enterprise, when employees believe they are positioned to make an impact, they perceive their opinions and actions as significant contributors to the process. In such instances, when the organization actively promotes digital training and provides technical support (Sousa and Rocha, 2019), equipping employees with the necessary tools and knowledge for more autonomous and efficient contributions, employees interpret these initiatives as rewards for their impact and efforts. Such social exchange with the organization motivates employees to respond positively, leading them to offer favorable evaluations of enterprise digital capability as a means of acknowledging and reciprocating the organization’s support for their personal development (Van Der Schaft et al. 2022).

Moreover, when employees recognize their impact in the digital transformation process, they feel empowered to face challenges and contribute to the organization’s success (Weisman et al. 2023). Employees are more likely to associate the high-level requirements of digital transformation with their own career development and achievements, acknowledging that enhancing enterprise digital capability also helps them achieve personal goals. This alignment of goals and values further strengthens employees’ organizational identification (Soomro et al. 2024). In this context, employees view the progress of the enterprise digital transformation as an external reflection of their own abilities and worth. Their self-image and self-esteem become, to some extent, tied to the enterprise’s success and market competitiveness, motivating them to take a more proactive approach to digital transformation initiatives and offer more favorable evaluations of enterprise digital capability.

In contrast, according to work design theory, employees who perceive low levels of impact within their roles may experience a diminished sense of meaning and value, leading them to believe that the organization is not effectively harnessing their potential. As a result, they may adopt a skeptical perspective regarding the enterprise’s digital capability. COR theory also suggests that these low-impact employees might perceive a loss of resources (e.g., loss of control over their work) and may be concerned that digital transformation will introduce uncertainty or threats to their identity, status, and career development prospects within the organization (Schneider and Sting, 2020). This perception can lead to reduced investment and result in unfavorable evaluation of enterprise digital capability.

Regarding the abovementioned underlying mechanisms of psychological ownership, social exchange, and organizational identification perspectives, this study theorizes that: when employees perceive themselves with low impact, it diminishes psychological ownership, fostering feelings of alienation and lack of control among employees. Meanwhile, low-impact employees may perceive insufficient rewards and recognition from the organization, which distorts the reciprocal of the exchange relationship. This situation may also lead employees to question the enterprise’s effectiveness in incentivizing and ensuring fairness. A decline in organizational identification further distances employees from the enterprise’s goals and values, ultimately undermining their confidence in the organization’s overall strategy. Collectively, these factors contribute to a negative evaluation of enterprise digital capability among employees who feel they have low impact. Thus, we posit that:

Hypothesis 1: During enterprise digital transformation, employee impact is positively related to his/her enterprise digital capability evaluation.

The moderating effect of empowering leadership

According to COR theory, employees will strive to accumulate and conserve key personal, social, and organizational resources during digital transformation (Hobfoll et al. 2018). By coordinating their psychological state and work-related emotions, individuals can better cope with the pressures induced by the process of change. Grounded in COR theory, research indicates that when leaders provide job resources that effectively meet employees’ work resource needs, positive outcomes are more likely to emerge (Wong and Giessner, 2018). In terms of the specific resource support that leaders can provide, empowering leadership behaviors are particularly aligned with the developmental requirements of enterprises undergoing digital transformation. Such leadership approaches, which emphasize intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, can better help employees understand the relationship between their own sense of impact and the evolving demands of the work environment (Cheong et al. 2019; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). From the perspective of COR theory, the interplay between the acquisition of such empowering resources and employees’ perceived impact may significantly influence the level of employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability. When employees feel a sense of decentralized power and autonomy granted by their leaders, they obtain exogenous empowerment resources. Those employees who perceive themselves with a greater impact on organizational outcomes are more inclined to proactively seek out ways to acquire new resources, actively respond to changes in the workplace, and take the initiative to adapt to the transformed environment. This adaptive mindset and behavior would contribute to employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability.

Work design theory provides further validation for the moderating role of empowering leadership (Humphrey et al. 2007; Rosso et al. 2010). Specifically, as a key social support factor, empowering leadership has been found to exert a positive influence on enhancing employees’ work initiative and perceived task significance within the context of organizational change. When leaders grant employees increased decision-making autonomy and latitude, employees become more likely to proactively assume responsibilities and seek ways to adjust, improve, and redesign work processes and outcomes (Ouyang et al. 2020). This enhanced sense of control and agency can, in turn, bolster employees’ perceptions of the meaningfulness and significance of their tasks, thereby improving their overall work experience during digital transformation. Furthermore, when employees feel that their efforts have a tangible impact on others or the organization as a whole, they experience a heightened sense of task significance (Humphrey et al. 2007). The social support facilitated by empowering leadership interacts synergistically with employees’ intrinsic valuation of their work, further reinforcing their motivation and engagement in the organizational change.

Taken together, this study postulates the extent to which employees’ impact shapes their evaluation of enterprise digital capability exhibits variations contingent on the level of empowering leadership. Empowering leadership encourages employees to voice and express opinions and ideas, consults with employees when making decisions, provides support for development, and inspires commitment and confidence in the pursuit of high performance. When the level of empowering leadership is high, employees who feel they have impact will recognize the value of their work, understand the importance of tasks, and perceive their own significance to the organization. Empowering leadership fosters a supportive organizational climate that encourages employees to proactively embrace the enterprise’s digital strategy and advancement plans. Under empowering leadership, impactful employees are more likely to view the outcomes of digital transformation as direct results of their efforts. Additionally, when organizations actively promote digital training and provide technical support (Sousa and Rocha, 2019), empowered employees tend to receive the necessary tools and knowledge to contribute more autonomously and efficiently. They would perceive these investments as forms of recognition and reward for their contributions.

Empowering leadership also facilitates greater alignment of goals and values between organization and impactful employees. For these employees, their self-image and self-worth are also partly contingent upon the enterprise’s successful performance and market competitiveness (Soomro et al. 2024). Thus, coupled with enhanced psychological ownership (Schäper et al. 2023), mutual reciprocity (Sousa and Rocha, 2019; Van Der Schaft et al. 2022), and organizational identification (Weisman et al. 2023; Soomro et al. 2024), empowering leadership plays a crucial role in enhancing the positive evaluations of digital capability among impactful employees.

On the contrary, when employees perceive low levels of empowering leadership, they may experience confusion during the work process, even if they believe they can contribute to the outcomes. This confusion arises from a lack of adequate resource support from their leaders (Gfrerer et al. 2021), which undermines their confidence and motivation in facing challenges. As a result, the extent to which their individual impact influences the evaluation of enterprise digital capabilities is diminished. Hence, we propose that:

Hypothesis 2. During enterprise digital transformation, empowering leadership strengthens the relationship between employee impact and his/her enterprise digital capability evaluation.

Empowering leadership and cognitive adjustment at work

To successfully achieve a competitive advantage through digital transformation, employees’ psychological resource foundations are ought to be aligned to support this transition (Chatterjee et al. 2022). Consistent with COR theory, the concept of cognitive adjustment at work reflects individuals’ intrinsic concerns about the preservation and acquisition of critical personal and organizational resources (Montani et al. 2020). This cognitive adjustment process encapsulates employees’ efforts to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills at a psychological level, enabling them to effectively meet evolving job requirements and achieve their work-related goals. As a key psychological resource for employees, cognitive adjustment at work encompasses three distinct components: task adjustment, group adjustment, and organizational adjustment (Malo et al. 2016). Through these multifaceted adjustments, employees can proactively enhance their work-related skills and capabilities, thereby enhancing their capacity to cope with increasingly complex and dynamic task demands (Schneider and Sting, 2020).

To be specific, task adjustment refers to the knowledge and skills required to deal with different aspects of work. Group adjustment involves getting to know team members, recognizing individual roles within the team, and how to act collaboratively. Organizational adjustment encompasses employees’ understanding of the organization’s formal and informal rules, power relations, and the norms and values of the workplace climate and organizational culture (Malo et al. 2016). In the context of digital transformation, according to COR theory, when employees perceive empowering conduct from their leaders, such as providing guidance, sharing resources, delegating authority, and encouraging self-drive, these behaviors not only influence employees’ access to established work-related resources but also have an impact on their emotional and cognitive resources. At the same time, it further improves the level of cognitive adjustment of employees to their work task, group and organization. In this way, employees who perceive their leaders are empowering more resources will be more inclined to invest additional resources to achieve cognitive adjustment more efficiently, thereby increasing readiness to complete the digital missions (Koopmann et al. 2016). Therefore, we hypothesize that:

Hypothesis 3: During enterprise digital transformation, empowering leadership is positively related to employees’ cognitive adjustment at work.

The moderating effect of cognitive adjustment at work

COR theory reflects the changes in employees’ available resources as they interact with their environment. When individuals have abundant resources, they strive to find opportunities to invest as well as acquire more new resources (Hobfoll, 2001). Cognitive adjustment at work reflects job-related information and resources, and imply changes in the knowledge and skills employees need to accomplish their work (Montani et al. 2020). The acquisition of such knowledge and skills necessitates employees to dedicate additional time and effort, in order to find more matching resources within the organization, which manifests as an increase in resources (Malo et al. 2016). Faced with the uncertain and ongoing digital transformation, employees’ perceived impact provides intrinsic motivation for the evaluation of enterprise digital capability. Driven by investments in resources (Hobfoll et al. 2018; Halbesleben et al. 2014), employees with a greater impact are more likely to cultivate a sense of responsibility (Wang et al. 2023), and exhibit heightened concern for the enterprise’s digital transformation when they demonstrate a high level of cognitive adjustment at work. This cognitive adjustment enhances their psychological ownership of their roles in the transformation process, leading to increased anticipation and positive social exchange relationships with the enterprise (Meske and Junglas, 2021). Moreover, these employees become more attuned to the initiatives and achievements of the organization, resulting in a deeper organizational identification with the digital vision (Soomro et al. 2024). Such shifts act as catalysts that reinforce their positive evaluations of enterprise digital capability.

Regarding the three dimensions of cognitive adjustment at work, impactful employees with a higher level of task adjustment will be more supportive of the necessity and urgency of enterprise digital transformation. Therefore, they will be more likely to take the initiative to search for answers to all kinds of real-world problems throughout the digital tasks. Under the combined effects of their impact, they tend to have more self-confidence and determination in completing their work tasks (Montani et al. 2020). Based on the self-drive brought about by their impact, employees with a higher level of group adjustment tend to communicate actively and collaborate effectively with their colleagues (Chen et al. 2013). Naturally, impactful employees are capable of aligning closely with their leaders, due to a shared belief in the importance of transformation (Gfrerer et al. 2021). This collaborative approach fosters greater consensus regarding the understanding of digital transformation. In addition, when these employees demonstrate a heightened level of organizational adjustment, their personal impact instills in them a sense of meaningfulness (Rosso et al. 2010), motivating them to pursue specific pathways outlined for digital transformation. As they receive more information (Solberg et al. 2020), they develop a more nuanced understanding of the process. Consequently, these perceptions enable them to make more accurate evaluations of the progress of enterprise digital capability.

In contrast, employees with low levels of cognitive adjustment at work may lack the necessary flexibility and open-mindedness to embrace new information and skills. This results in a diminished willingness (Ahn and Chen, 2022) to acknowledge the benefits and advancements associated with digital transformation. Although they may recognize their potential impact on digital progress, the absence of motivation for cognitive adjustment ultimately leads to a less favorable evaluation of enterprise digital capability. Taken together, we propose that:

Hypothesis 4: During enterprise digital transformation, cognitive adjustment at work strengthens the relationship between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation.

An integrated model

Drawing upon work design theory and COR theory, integrating the aforementioned hypotheses, this study further proposes an integrated mediated moderation model. During digital transformation, empowering leadership moderates the relationship between employee impact and their evaluation of enterprise digital capability, of which the moderating role is achieved through the mediating effect of cognitive adjustment at work. Specifically, organizations could deliberately provide employees with impact during transformation through effective work design and provide social support from empowering leadership. Employees who perceive themselves as impactful and receive empowering resources from leaders will raise awareness of the value of themselves and the work. Therefore, they will be more likely to develop an empathetic understanding of the digital transformation, leading to positive evaluations of the enterprise digital capability. Within the process by which empowering leadership influences employees’ cognitive adjustment at work, it is posited that employees will actively engage in cognitive adjustment efforts in order to identify and acquire additional work-related resources. By better understanding the evolving work situation and aligning their knowledge, skills, and abilities with the emerging demands of digital transformation, these employees are better equipped to adapt to the changing organizational needs (Montani et al. 2020). This proactive cognitive adjustment at work, facilitated by empowering leadership, can further shape employees’ evaluations of enterprise digital capability and their capacity to effectively navigate the transition. Employees who have developed a heightened sense of impact and control over their work environment are more likely to dedicate cognitive resources towards mastering new skills, optimizing work processes, and aligning their personal goals with the enterprise’s digital transformation agenda. This cognitive investment, in turn, can enhance their overall perceptions of the enterprise’s digital prowess and their own role in contributing to its success. This study proposes that:

Hypothesis 5: During enterprise digital transformation, cognitive adjustment at work mediates the moderating effect of empowering leadership on the association between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation.

Our theoretical model is depicted in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Theoretical model.

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Method

Samples and procedures

This study collected survey data from employees of a Chinese enterprise participating in a training program by an industry association. In response to the limitations of its original centralized management model, the enterprise initiated a digital transformation strategy in 2019, implementing a digital system for data centralization, flow, and platformization. This system facilitates cross-departmental data sharing and offers online services to customers, employees, and partners, thereby interconnecting various enterprise information systems.

Internal management data indicate that the launch of the digital system has significantly reduced the time required for document applications, seal usage, and overall business processes. However, resistance from employees, the primary users, has emerged. Common concerns include unfamiliarity with the new system, time constraints, and inflexible processes, which hinder their willingness to input new cases and cooperate in data collection. Recognizing the need for enhanced guidance and training, the enterprise invited the industry association to provide targeted training programs in 2021 to address these challenges and promote broader adoption of the digital system. The trainees were basically persons in charge, or in the core teams within the enterprise who were familiar with the relevant circumstances and the main users of the digital system. With the consent of the company leaders and employees, we obtained the list of members who were willing to participate in the research survey and their e-mail addresses. We first introduced the purpose and process. Moreover, it is guaranteed that the information and results will only be used for academic research and will not be disclosed to any third party.

To minimize the effect of common method variance, this study utilized multi-time (i.e., Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3) online questionnaire (Podsakoff et al. 2012). There was a six-week interval between each of the two time points. In order to match the data acquired at different points, the researchers randomly generated unique IDs for each participant, and the match between the participant’s email address and the randomized IDs was held only by the researchers. At Time 1, the researchers invited participants to evaluate their perceived impact during the digital transformation process, as well as basic information. At Time 2, participants self-assessed their level of cognitive adjustment at work to digital transformation, and the level of empowering leadership of their direct managers. At Time 3, participants evaluated their perceived level of digital capability of their enterprise. To encourage participation, respondents received a monetary reward of 20 yuan in mobile credit for each completion.

At Time 1, the researchers collected 650 questionnaires. At Time 2, we distributed questionnaires to participants who completed the first wave. At Time 3, we sent the questionnaire link to those who participated in both the first and second waves. After removing unmatched and invalid questionnaires, a total of 424 matched questionnaires were obtained, with a recovery rate of 65.23%. T-test analysis showed that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between participants who completed the three waves of the survey and those who did not, in terms of gender, age, educational level, tenure, and positional level, suggesting that the sample loss was random. Of the final 424 participants, 42.7% were male and 57.3% were female. In terms of age, 39.4% were between 21 and 30 years old, while 52.6% were between 31 and 40 years old. A total of 81.4% of the participants had received a bachelor’s degree or higher, with an average tenure of 6.22 years (standard deviation [SD] = 4.27). Regarding position level, front-line managers had the highest proportion, accounting for 37.3%, followed by front-line employees at 33.3%, and middle-level managers at 22.6%.

Measures

Since all measurements were originally in English, this study adhered to standardized translation and back-translation protocols to translate them into Chinese (Brislin, 1980). A seven-point Likert scale method was used (with the exception of enterprise digital capability evaluation), where 1 = “strongly disagree” and 7 = “strongly agree”.

Impact

This study adapted the impact dimension from the Psychological Empowerment Scale (Maynard et al. 2012) to measure the extent to which employees perceive that they are exerting impacts on digital transformation. The example item was: “During enterprise digital transformation, I have a significant impact on what happens in my department”. The Cronbach’s α [α] for this scale is 0.89.

Empowering leadership

This study used a ten-item questionnaire developed and modified by Vecchio et al. (2010) to invite employees to appraise the level of empowering leadership of their direct leaders. The example item was: “My direct manager advises me to look for opportunities when faced with a problem” (α = 0.81).

Cognitive adjustment at work

We used Malo et al.’ (2016) scale which contained 18 items with three dimensions. “Task adjustment” had four items, such as “During enterprise digital transformation, I know how to do my job well” (α = 0.70). “Group adjustment” contained 8 items, e.g., “During enterprise digital transformation, I know who to go to when I want to get something done” (α = 0.83). “Organizational adjustment” had six items, e.g., “During enterprise digital transformation, I know how enterprise decisions are made” (α = 0.85). Following previous studies, cognitive adjustment at work was regarded as a unidimensional variable (Montani et al. 2020) (α = 0.89).

Enterprise digital capability evaluation

We applied the scales developed by Zhou and Wu (2010), as well as Khin and Ho (2019) to invite employees to evaluate the level of enterprise digital capability in the following areas: “acquiring important digital technologies”, “identifying new digital opportunities”, “coping with digital transformation”, “mastering the most advanced digital technologies”, and “utilizing digital technologies to develop innovative products/services/processes”. In a seven-point Likert rating, 1 represents “far behind peers” while 7 represents “far ahead of peers” (α = 0.89).

Control variables

Since employees’ gender, age, tenure, educational level, and positional level may influence their attitudes and behaviors in organizational change (Madsen et al. 2005), this study controlled for these demographic variables to eliminate potential confounding effects on the results. To be noted, the results remain the same whether involving these control variables or not.

Results

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 reports the means, SDs, correlation coefficients, and reliabilities.

Table 1 Means, standard deviations, correlations, and reliabilities.
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Confirmatory factor analysis

We applied Mplus to conduct confirmatory factor analysis of the four main variables. Since the ratio of sample size to the predicted number of items influences model fit, we divided cognitive adjustment into three dimensions: task, group, and organizational adjustment. Additionally, empowering leadership was parceled into three factors using the item-balanced method (Little et al. 2013; Williams et al. 2009). The results summarized in Table 2 show that the four-factor model had the best fit between the observed data and the hypothesized model (χ2(71) = 236.54, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.07, CFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.06) and outperformed all other alternative models. This indicates that there is ideal discriminant validity among the four main variables.

Table 2 Results of the confirmatory factor analysis.
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As all variables were filled out by the same respondent via survey, there may be common method bias (Podsakoff et al. 2012). First, Harman’s single-factor test was employed to examine the actual impact of common method bias on the research findings. As shown in Table 2, compared to the hypothesized four-factor model, the single-factor model fit the data poorly (χ2(77) = 1321.28, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.20, CFI = 0.61, TLI = 0.53, SRMR = 0.12). Simultaneously, through SPSS26.0, after loading all measurement items of latent variables on a common factor, the explanatory power of the first factor for total variance was 28.74%, which is less than the threshold of 50%. Third, we conducted analysis controlling for the effects of a single unmeasured latent method factor. Results indicate that when adding the unmeasured latent common methods variance factor, the model fit (χ2(70) = 256.83, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.08, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.92, SRMR = 0.10) is still poorer compared with the hypothesized four-factor model. This indicates that most of the variation in all variables cannot be explained by this common method factor. Taken together, the results suggest that common method bias did not seriously contaminate our results.

Hypothesis tests

Conventional procedures based on path analysis using Mplus (Grant and Berry, 2011; Liu et al. 2022) were followed to test hypotheses. According to Aiken and West (1991), the independent variable (impact), and moderators (empowering leadership, cognitive adjustment at work) were centered before putting into the model. The results of the path analysis are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Pathway analysis results.
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As for Hypothesis 1, according to Table 3, there is a positive and significant relationship between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation (B = 0.11, SE = 0.04, p < 0.05), supporting Hypothesis 1.

As for Hypothesis 2, the interaction term between employee impact and empowering leadership is positively related with enterprise digital capability evaluation (B = 0.13, SE = 0.06, p < 0.05). To further interpret the results, according to Aiken and West (1991), this study performed the simple slope test and illustrated the moderation effect in Hypothesis 2 (see Fig. 2). The results indicate that when empowering leadership was high (one SD above the mean), the relationship between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation was positively significant (B = 0.18, SE = 0.06, p < 0.01). Besides, when empowering leadership was low (one SD below the mean), the relationship between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation was no longer significant (B = 0.04, SE = 0.06, p > 0.05). Hence, Hypothesis 2 was supported.

Fig. 2
figure 2

The interactive effect of employee impact and empowering leadership on enterprise digital capability evaluation.

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As for Hypothesis 3, the results displayed in Table 3 point out that empowering leadership has a positive and significant effect on cognitive adjustment at work (B = 0.38, SE = 0.04, p < 0.001). Therefore, Hypothesis 3 was supported.

Table 3 indicates that the interaction term between employee impact and cognitive adjustment at work has a positive and significant effect on enterprise digital capability evaluation (B = 0.13, SE = 0.06, p < 0.05). Simple slope results (see Fig. 3) showed that when employees’ cognitive adjustment at work was high, the relationship between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation was positively significant (B = 0.18, SE = 0.06, p < 0.01), while when employees’ cognitive adjustment at work was low, the relationship between employee impact and enterprise digital capability evaluation was still positively significant, but the strength was substantially weakened (B = 0.04, SE = 0.06, p < 0.05), supporting Hypothesis 4.

Fig. 3
figure 3

The interactive effect of employee impact and cognitive adjustment at work on enterprise digital capability evaluation.

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This study followed the approaches recommended by Hayes (2015) to test the mediated moderation model proposed in Hypothesis 5. The results showed that employees’ cognitive adjustment at work significantly mediated the effect of the interaction of employee impact and empowering leadership on their enterprise digital capability evaluation (B = 0.05, SE = 0.02, p < 0.05). Hence, Hypothesis 5 was supported.

Discussion

During enterprise digital transformation, employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability could potentially exert influences on various work-related outcomes (Vial, 2019; Schneider and Sting, 2020; Ahn and Chen, 2022; Weber et al. 2022). These employee-level evaluations not only directly influence their work attitudes and behavioral performance, but also subtly shape the overall development of the enterprise digital capability through their manifested behaviors and attitudes (Van Der Schaft et al. 2022).

Given the pivotal role of employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability in the success of digital transformation initiatives, drawing on work design theory and COR theory, this research endeavors to unpack the psychological and contextual factors that shape employees’ favorable evaluation of enterprise digital capability. Empirical results based on a three-wave survey featuring 424 full-time Chinese employees show that: Impactful work design enhances employees’ positive evaluations of enterprise digital capability while empowering leadership strengthens this relationship. Employees’ cognitive adjustment at work further amplifies the effect of their impact on evaluations of digital capability. The moderating effect of empowering leadership is mediated by cognitive adjustment at work.

Theoretical implications

First, the study enhances the understanding of how employees’ subjective perceptions and interpretations of the objective reality of digital transformation shape their evaluations of enterprise digital capability within the broader context of organizational change (Ostmeier and Strobel, 2022). Existing literature has primarily focused on exploring the effects of digital transformation on employee behaviors, while the antecedents and underlying mechanisms that account for variations in employees’ evaluations of enterprise digital capability remain underexplored (Klein et al. 2024). By addressing this research gap, the current investigation contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of employees’ attitudes and behavioral responses during the digital transformation process. This knowledge can inform the formulation of more effective digital transformation strategies, enhance employees’ adaptability and job satisfaction, and ensure their active participation and support throughout the transformation journey. Furthermore, by incorporating employees’ evaluations into the continuous refinement of the transformation and upgrading process, organizations can enhance their digital capability and remain more competitive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape (Vial, 2019; Schneider and Sting, 2020; Weber et al. 2022). Grounded in the theoretical foundations of organizational change and individual-level perceptions, this study takes a critical step towards elucidating the latent association between employee impact and their evaluation of enterprise digital capability. By exploring these underlying mechanisms, it enriches the existing knowledge on employee perceptions during digital transformation.

Second, grounded in work design theory and COR theory, the present study focuses on identifying the key factors that shape how employees evaluate enterprise digital capability during the process of digital transformation. This investigation is premised on the notion that effective work design can empower employees with a heightened perception of their own impact within the organization. Drawing on the core tenets of COR theory, this study explains the hypotheses through the lens of individuals’ motivation to invest and acquire resources, as well as the results of resources gain spiral. Also, the study integrates the psychological motivational factors from work design theory with the resource accumulation motivation in COR theory, thereby elucidating the driving factors behind changes in employees’ evaluations of enterprise digital capability. The empirical evidence sheds light on the variations in individual perceptions and evaluations, thereby extending the explanatory scope of COR theory in accounting for the formation of employee cognitive models and attitudinal responses in the context of digital transformation.

Third, this study reveals the moderating role of empowering leadership. Scholars have argued that rather than focusing primarily on the organizational aspect, researchers can gain richer insights into potential boundary mechanisms amidst digital transformation from the perspective of internal leadership (Weber et al. 2022), with special attention given to the significance of leaders’ behaviors and their interaction with employees in driving organizational change (Ahmad et al. 2020). Empowering leadership, as an effective social support factor, has the potential to create a work environment that fosters innovation, adaptability, and active collaboration among employees. This, in turn, can effectively promote and facilitate the process of enterprise digital transformation. This study echoes and confirms that the value of empowering leadership needs to be re-conceptualized in the era of digital transformation.

Fourth, concentrating on the individual cognitive level, the present study uncovers that employees’ cognitive adjustment at work mediates the moderating role of empowering leadership in the relationship between their impact and the evaluation of enterprise digital capability. One of the primary essences of successful organizational change, such as digital transformation, lies in whether employees recognize and internalize the change at the core of their cognitive processes (Vial, 2019). Empowering leadership, characterized by the delegation of authority and the provision of autonomy, can effectively stimulate employees’ innovation potential and enthusiasm for the transformation effort. However, this leadership style can only fully exert its positive influence when employees truly understand and accept the underlying transformation strategy. As an adaptive strategy for employees dealing with organizational changes, cognitive adjustment serves not only as an individual-level adaptation mechanism but also as a key driving factor for the success of digital transformation.

Practical implications

First, enterprises should focus on prioritizing empowering employees and enhancing their perception of personal impact. As a form of organizational change, digital transformation necessitates employees’ embrace of a novel organizational vision and workflows, alongside their proactive alignment with shifts in work resources and modifications to work modalities (Schneider and Sting, 2020). Therefore, enterprises committed to digital transformation need to consider the factors that influence employees’ positive evaluations of digital capability (Klein et al. 2024). Efforts should be made to ensure that employees understand the transformation as beneficial, and closely tied to their own interests, thereby fostering willingness for recognition. Despite being in a shared context, individuals may have distinct evaluations toward digital transformation, which can influence the overall acceptance of the transformation among employees. To stimulate employees’ proactive engagement in digital transformation, enterprises can bolster employees’ perceived impact by work design and optimize their experiences during such tremendous organizational change through measures such as granting control, emphasizing responsibilities, sharing information, fostering skill development (Frick et al. 2021) and promoting a culture of openness and innovation. Also, by conducting work design during digital transformation, enterprises could grant employees greater autonomy and control over their work processes and decisions, which could increase their feelings of empowerment and ability to influence organizational outcomes. Enterprises could also design jobs to be more meaningful, challenging, and skill-enhancing for employees. This can boost their sense of impact and investment in the digital transformation.

Second, enterprises are advocated to attach importance to the construction of empowering culture, cultivate empowering leadership, and encourage managers to give employees more autonomy and resources during the digital transformation, so as to stimulate employees’ sense of responsibility in confronting the challenges of digital transformation (Wang et al. 2023). Combined with COR theory, employees with sufficient resources are inclined to undertake resource investments, leading to a resource gain spiral (Koopmann et al. 2016). Therefore, the exhibition of empowering leadership behaviors stresses a reinforcing effect on employees’ evaluation of enterprise digital capability.

Third, enterprises should pay full attention to and actively promote an employee’s level of cognitive adjustment at work during digital transformation. The key to achieving the expected goals of organizational change lies in the synchronous transformation and timely adjustment of the cognitive patterns and ways of thinking of employees engaged in the transformation, as this directly influences their attitude towards digital transformation and subsequent individual behaviors. Enterprises should continuously attend to the direction and intensity of employees’ cognitive adjustments at three levels: task, group, and the organization, in order to fully mobilize employees’ subjective initiative, unleash potential and facilitate the continuous optimization of employees’ enterprise digital capability evaluation, ultimately, ensuring the smooth advancement of the transformation process.

Limitations and directions for future research

The present study has several limitations that warrant further refinement in future research endeavors.

First, although a multi-wave data collection approach helps mitigate common method biases, the self-reported questionnaire data cannot definitively establish causal inferences. Additionally, the recruitment of survey participants through voluntary participation may lead to selection effects, resulting in certain groups being over- or under-represented (Ferri-García and Rueda, 2022). For example, employees with strong opinions on enterprise digital transformation may be more likely to participate, while those with neutral or disinterested views might opt out. To address these limitations, future research should track relevant variables over time and utilize experimental or quasi-experimental methods, along with longitudinal data analysis, to strengthen causal conclusions.

Second, we have incorporated COR theory, psychological ownership (Schäper et al. 2023), social exchange (Van Der Schaft et al. 2022), and organizational identification (Weisman et al. 2023) as underlying mechanisms linking employee impact to evaluations of digital capability. Due to our emphasis on the mediating role of cognitive adjustment at work and the moderating role of empowering leadership, we did not empirically test these additional mechanisms. Future research should integrate these variables to explore broader influences and practical strategies, providing comprehensive guidance for individuals and organizations navigating digital transformation. By adopting a holistic approach, subsequent studies can deepen our understanding of the complex processes underlying employee evaluations and inform change management practices in the context of digital transformation.

Third, this study lacks longitudinal observation and thorough analysis of employees’ cognitive patterns and attitudinal states during the process of digital transformation. The employees’ perception, evaluation, and behavioral states in the context of enterprise digital transformation exhibit a complex and dynamic nature. Researchers are advocated to delve into the site of organizational management, utilizing a combination methodology of in-depth case analysis and interview.

Fourth, while we recognize the theoretical and practical significance of employees’ subjective evaluations of enterprise digital capability, our survey-based study did not empirically examine its subsequent influences. To provide initial insights, we conducted ad-hoc interviews with 15 employees from the studied company. We asked them, “How would you evaluate your enterprise’s digital capability, and how does this evaluation influence your engagement at work?” Seven interviewees noted that the enterprise digital capability had significantly advanced, enhancing its competitiveness relative to peers, indicating high evaluations of digital capability. Interviewee 5 remarked, “The digital system gives us greater bargaining power in platform negotiations and strengthens our distribution channel positioning. We must foster innovation and deliver higher-quality, intelligent services to establish ourselves as industry leaders.” Similarly, Interviewee 13 emphasized, “Our management platform synthesizes data from numerous companies, enhancing our competitiveness. We need to learn more to master intelligent technology and continuously optimize our strategies for transformation.” These statements suggest that positive evaluations of digital capability motivate employees to engage in continuous learning, innovate, and contribute to their organization, ultimately supporting a “bottom-up” approach to achieving long-term competitive advantage.

While the ad-hoc interviews provided valuable insights, there remains a lack of rigorous examination of the subsequent impacts of employees’ subjective evaluations of enterprise digital capability. We encourage future researchers to explore how these evaluations influence employees’ supportive behaviors toward digital transformation (Klein et al. 2024), their adoption of digital technologies (Schneider and Sting, 2020), and, in a “bottom-up” manner, contribute to organizational internal controls (Cheng et al. 2024), resilience (Browder et al. 2024), human capital development (Cu and Diwu, 2024), and innovation performance (Peng and Tao, 2022). Researchers are urged to undertake subsequent empirical validations to unravel these complex managerial dynamics, thereby providing a firm research foundation for practical applications. These prospective research trajectories not only serve to reinforce our findings but also propel broader developmental strides within the field.

Fifth, when generalizing our research findings, it is imperative to consider the diversity among enterprises in terms of their industry environments, cultural contexts, and levels of digitization (Meske and Junglas, 2021). The impact of empowering leadership and the mechanisms of cognitive adjustment at work may manifest differently across various organizational settings. Factors such as industry-specific technological requirements, prevailing cultural norms, and values, as well as the current state of digital maturity within the enterprise, could all potentially moderate the relationships observed in the present investigation. Similarly, cultural contexts characterized by higher power distance or more rigid hierarchical structures may pose unique challenges to the implementation of empowering leadership practices, thereby potentially limiting their effectiveness in facilitating cognitive adjustment and positive evaluations of digital capability. Future research should therefore strive to examine the boundary conditions of the proposed relationships by incorporating contextual variables, such as industry, organizational culture, digital maturity and etc. This would enable a more nuanced understanding of the contingencies that shape the interplay between leadership, individual cognition, and the assessment of organizational digital capability.

Sixth, we recognize that employee job titles and individual digital abilities are critical factors influencing experiences and reactions during digital transformation initiatives. Existing literature on organizational change and digital transformation consistently highlights the importance of these individual-level variables in shaping employee responses to technological advancements. For instance, studies have shown that job characteristics, such as an employee’s position within the organizational hierarchy or their specific job functions (e.g., manufacturing vs. managerial roles), significantly affect their receptiveness, adaptability, and engagement with digital transformation efforts (Oreg and Berson, 2019). Additionally, employees’ digital skills and self-efficacy play pivotal roles in determining their performance and attitudes during new technology implementations (Herkema, 2020). Therefore, we encourage future researchers to incorporate these factors as key control variables in studies of the internal impacts of enterprise digital transformation. Moreover, qualitative research should explore how employees’ job characteristics and digital capabilities influence their responses to technological changes. Such contextual data can enhance the development of comprehensive theoretical models and empirical tests, deepening our understanding of this significant and evolving organizational phenomenon.