Exploring digital transformation and organisational culture in Sri Lanka’s facilities management sector: a developing country perspective

Purpose This study aims to examine how digital transformation has influenced organisational culture in Sri Lanka’s Facilities Management (FM) industry, focusing on the impact of adopting digital technologies on key cultural dimensions – people, process and strategic orientation within FM organisations. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a quantitative approach, collecting survey data from 74 professionals in Sri Lanka’s FM industry through a structured questionnaire assessing digital maturity, technology availability and organisational culture. Data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (SmartPLS4) to evaluate hypothesised relationships between digital transformation and key cultural dimensions. Findings The findings reveal that digital transformation significantly impacts the process and strategic dimensions of organisational culture in Sri Lanka’s FM sector, contributing to greater efficiency, transparency and alignment. However, the people dimension showed no significant change, indicating that staff roles, communication and collaboration remained largely unaffected. Research limitations/implications The use of convenience sampling and limited participants may introduce selection bias, which limits the representativeness of the findings and constrains their generalisability to the broader population of FM organisations. Originality/value This study addresses a critical gap in the literature by exploring the under-researched relationship between digitisation and organisational culture within FM organisations in a developing country context. By providing empirical evidence from Sri Lanka, a representative of the Global South, this research offers a valuable contrast to the predominantly Western-focused studies, contributing to a more culturally diverse understanding of digital transformation in FM.