Understanding organisational culture and digitalisation in the wind energy sector

Abstract. Digitalisation is a key enabler for accelerating global wind energy deployment; however, digital technologies can create tension between old values and new ones, making so-called "digital organisational culture" a prerequisite for the success of these technologies. This work aims to understand how organisational culture is related with digitalisation by organisations in the wind energy sector. To answer this question, a literature review was first performed to gain an overview of organisational culture and digitalisation of wind energy. Then the literature review was complemented by an online survey, conducted between March and September 2024. The online survey was addressed to stakeholders from the wind energy sector from 17 countries. The results show that teams, rather than whole organisations, are the stronger engines of digitalisation culture, and companies outperform universities and research and technology organisations. Size has little bearing on cultural readiness, and digital momentum rises bottom-up while large organisations lag in funding and tools. Large organisations supply more formal training, small ones give better support to unsure staff, and team culture depends more on its leaders and members than on hierarchy or number of employees. Qualitative comments identify the main barriers to digitalisation to be lack of resources, vague strategies, siloed structures, risk-averse leaders, and weak digital skills. Suggested solutions include earmarking time and money, creating explicit strategies, improving communication and leadership, rewarding innovation, and investing in targeted training or specialist hires. Finally, a list of recommendations and implementation suggestions are presented, intended to help team leaders and relevant decision-makers in fostering digitalisation.