School of Information Management Te Kura Tiaki, Whakawhiti Kōrero

Apply now

Ishara Kandane Arachchige Don

How can leaders support readiness to cope with challenges related to forced adoption of digital work environment?

An upper body portrait of PhD student Ishara Kandane Arachchige Don.
Ishara Kandane Arachchige Don, PhD student

Email:ishara.kandanearachchigedon@vuw.ac.nz

Supervisors: Professor Alexander Richter and Dr. Mary Tate

Sri Lanka flag Profile

Ishara Sudeeptha is a lecturer at the Department of Decision Sciences, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. His exposure and experience in lecturing resulted in developing an interest to start his PhD in Information Systems.

Abstract

Covid 19 pandemic has resulted in accelerating the rate of digital transformation more than ever before causing organizations to adapt sudden changes focusing on digitalization. This led to a paradigm shift away from the factory and toward a new paradigm of working remotely in a digital setting. Unexpected occurrence of the pandemic resulted businesses and the people who work for them to adapt digital work environment in a shorter period of time. Due to the impact of an outside force brought on by COVID 19, organizations were forced to implement different type of information systems without any set protocols to guarantee business continuity and this phenomenon can be identified as forced adoption of information systems. Hence, Employees were under tremendous pressure as a result of being forced to adopt a digital workplace. The pandemic has shown the imperfect nature of digitalization because people and businesses were forced to quickly and fully adopt the digital work environment in order to respond to the pandemic. Studies show that businesses even those at the forefront of the digital transformation of their processes and operations are not yet fully equipped to handle the challenges of this transformation. Hence, whether organizations were ready for this forced transition is an important question to answer and organizations should develop a process to support the readiness in the event of forced adoption of digital work environment to overcome the challenges.

Qualifications

  • MBA, Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura
  • BSc in Operations and Technology Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Research interests

Ishara’s research interest which related to his current study include information systems, digital work environments, forced adoption of information systems and readiness.

Publications

  • K. A. D. I. Sudeeptha & N. W. K. Galahitiyawe (2021). 'The Impact of Dynamic Capability on the Relationship Between Stakeholder Pressure and the Adoption of Green Practices'. PIM Annual Research Conference - 2021 (PIMARC 2021), Postgraduate Institute of Management, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 23rd of November 2021.

  • K. A. D. I. Sudeeptha & N. W. K. Galahitiyawe (2020). 'The Impact of Stakeholder Pressure on the Adoption of Green Practices by Manufacturing Firms'. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Business Management, School of Business and Economics, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, 20th of December 2020.