Perspectives on management learning in the digital economy

The digital economy, which was once considered as a panacea, is becoming increasingly

viewed as a grand societal challenge – a problem that not only presents significant barriers to many

people but is also so complex that it cannot be tackled by any one single organization. Mangers

influence how the components of the global digital infrastructure, such as data analytics, artificial

intelligence, and robotics impact society. However, mitigating the broad-gauged impacts of the

digital economy, like its impact on the nature of work, would benefit from new ideas about

manger’s roles in the digital economy. Framed in a management learning perspective, this study

collates what we know, and what we need to know, about management and the digital economy.

Overall, this paper suggests that managers need to learn new habits of thought to build a more

balanced, equitable, and sustainable version of digital economy. Perspectives on how to design

management learning environments to help managers think of, then implement, a digital ecosystem

rather than a digital economy will contribute to ongoing debates about management learning that

will advance positive transformations of the nature of work.