Data-Driven Culture: Embedding Algorithmic Technologies through Resolving Vision Conflicts

As algorithmic technologies become increasingly embedded in organizational routines, they hold great promise for improving organizational performance. However, realizing the potential of such systems is not straightforward. One challenge in focus is the conflict between values embedded in algorithmic systems and values of its main users. With the goal of developing a new theory on value conflicts and the creation of data-driven culture, we embarked on in-depth case research at WrapTrust, a mortgage lending firm, and their roll-out of algorithmic technologies for improving organizational performance. We identify three reciprocal leadership mechanisms (contextual calibration, paced enforcement, and empowering narrative) that enable managers to mitigate such vision conflicts. All in all, the activation of those mechanisms fosters a data-driven culture, which enables algorithmic technologies to become culturally embedded, and allows those systems, inherently intrusive or prone to suspicion, to be gradually repositioned as shared instruments for both performance enhancement and employee empowerment.