Digital Leadership and Digital Transformation in Enhancing Public Sector Employee Performance: The Mediating Roles of Digital Culture and Digital Competence

Abstract

Digital government initiatives increasingly require public organizations to align leadership, technological transformation, workplace culture, and employee capabilities. This study examines the direct effects of digital leadership and digital transformation on public sector employee performance and investigates the mediating roles of digital culture and digital competence. A quantitative explanatory survey was conducted among 374 employees of the Konawe Selatan Regency Government, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. The research model was assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reported in the dissertation indicate positive and statistically significant direct associations of digital leadership with digital culture (β = 0.949), employee performance (β = 0.856), and digital transformation (β = 0.891). Digital transformation was positively related to digital competence (β = 0.892), employee performance (β = 0.605), and digital culture (β = 0.159). Both digital culture (β = 0.330) and digital competence (β = 0.415) were positively associated with performance. The indirect effect through digital culture, calculated from the displayed constituent path coefficients, is β = 0.313 (0.949 × 0.330); its bootstrap significance requires verification. The dissertation reports a significant indirect effect through digital competence (β = 0.370; p < 0.001). These findings suggest that digitalization may influence employee performance through complementary organizational and individual mechanisms. The study contributes contextual evidence from subnational government in eastern Indonesia and underscores the importance of developing digital culture and employee competence alongside digital infrastructure. The significance of the recalculated cultural mediation pathway should be verified using the original SmartPLS bootstrap output.