The digital world of work and social media, despite its challenges, is here to stay as an integrated part of our day-to-day operational norms. Therefore, we must make the best of it on a proactive basis before the pri...The digital world of work and social media, despite its challenges, is here to stay as an integrated part of our day-to-day operational norms. Therefore, we must make the best of it on a proactive basis before the private data of our employees and consumers becomes hacked remotely by criminals. Privacy violations and hacking of data cannot be sustained since they can be very costly and may even lead to bankruptcy. As such, today’s leaders, managers, and educators have the responsibility of preparing their future replacements for the modern digital economy, so their organizations’ operational processes can remain competitive, safe, and sustainable. Operational sustainability, in this paper, is proposed as a tripod or “three-legged stool” of environmental, social, and digital responsibility. With more employees and entrepreneurs accessing digital data remotely through vulnerable or unsecure online platforms, the opportunities for cybercrimes rise. Therefore, this article focuses more on the often-neglected digitalization element of operational sustainability. All leaders must be aware of the legal, social, and environmental expectations of a digital society by doing what is good for the world while also being efficient and safe from cybercriminals. The paper proposes that future leaders must be socialized with a sustainability mindset about data privacy and safety measures that are necessary for this fast-changing digital economy where hackers and artificial intelligence (AI) tools can make the process more challenging. With AI being used by some actors to generate false yet realistic content, companies will have to do more to make sure their brands are not defamed or tarnished. As such, this conceptual article discusses a model for operational sustainability, which includes the privacy and safety of data that can be used by managers, educators and other leaders for training and development purposes in today’s digital world of work.展开更多
文摘The digital world of work and social media, despite its challenges, is here to stay as an integrated part of our day-to-day operational norms. Therefore, we must make the best of it on a proactive basis before the private data of our employees and consumers becomes hacked remotely by criminals. Privacy violations and hacking of data cannot be sustained since they can be very costly and may even lead to bankruptcy. As such, today’s leaders, managers, and educators have the responsibility of preparing their future replacements for the modern digital economy, so their organizations’ operational processes can remain competitive, safe, and sustainable. Operational sustainability, in this paper, is proposed as a tripod or “three-legged stool” of environmental, social, and digital responsibility. With more employees and entrepreneurs accessing digital data remotely through vulnerable or unsecure online platforms, the opportunities for cybercrimes rise. Therefore, this article focuses more on the often-neglected digitalization element of operational sustainability. All leaders must be aware of the legal, social, and environmental expectations of a digital society by doing what is good for the world while also being efficient and safe from cybercriminals. The paper proposes that future leaders must be socialized with a sustainability mindset about data privacy and safety measures that are necessary for this fast-changing digital economy where hackers and artificial intelligence (AI) tools can make the process more challenging. With AI being used by some actors to generate false yet realistic content, companies will have to do more to make sure their brands are not defamed or tarnished. As such, this conceptual article discusses a model for operational sustainability, which includes the privacy and safety of data that can be used by managers, educators and other leaders for training and development purposes in today’s digital world of work.
