ORGANIZATION THEORY
Final Essay
Name – Student number:
Tutorial teacher:
How Can Organizations
Maintain Their Customers
Interests Into Their
Products and Services in the
Digitalized World?
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
LEDAINE, E.R.T.
1
, Introduction
Nowadays, digitalization, or, as some others may refer to digital transformation, can be
considered as one of the cornerstones of the 21st Century society. Clegg et. al (2019, p.5)
define it as “the use of digital technologies and of data (digitized from non-digital sources or
originally created as such) to manage organization processes”. Ulbrich et al. (2020)
conceptualize digitalization more of as a societal transformation process that uses ubiquitous
digital technologies to connect ever larger social spaces. Maltese (2018) characterizes it as a
set of mainly technological, cultural, organizational, social, creative and managerial changes.
There is thus no proper definition of digitalization, but each one that can be found involves
technology.
The digital transformation is an unavoidable phenomenon which everyone needs to be able to
manage, as the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated it, with the drastic increasing use of
platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet in the education, as the sanitary situation has
impeded many students all around the globe to attend school. Digitalization seems at first
impression to be more than positive, as it can facilitate various activities for individuals. The
way they shop, the way they receive education, the way they learn. These practices have been
much facilitated by the digital transformation since some years. Furthermore, for
organizations, some technological advancements have allowed them to be more efficient
(e.g., the use of self-scan checkouts in supermarkets).
However, almost everything has a negative side. The gig economy, characterized by the
prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs (Clegg. et
al., 2019, p.14), which is directly derived from digitalization, has shown that albeit it appears
to be at first insight positive for the market, it actually engenders many issues. It creates
problems for tax authorities and distorts local housing markets (i.e., the neighborhood of
Alfama in Lisbon, capital of Portugal (Bloom, 2018)). Moreover, it can lead to
overexploitation as the incredible low delivery prices of the well-known Uber Eats
application, emerged from the gig economy, show it. Digitalization is beneficial for
customers, as they have a broader range of options, from cheap to expensive: their way of
living is being facilitated. For organizations, even though it can offer many advantages, the
digital transformation turns out in reality to be a real challenge, as they need to keep their
customers interests, and attract new ones, as things are continuously changing and stay in the
competition isn’t something effortless at all. In this essay, I will discuss further the challenge
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