Maximilian Helms

• The accelerating pace of digital transformation (DT) is profoundly reshaping the world of work, placing new demands on employees and affecting their well-being. As employee well-being is closely linked to engagement and performance, this PhD project investigates how organizations can engage employees during DT, with particular consideration of their well-being. The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) serves as the kernel theory in this research for understanding well-being, expanded to include physical health. Furthermore, both different working conditions and various life stages of employees are incorporated in order to capture the dynamic nature of well-being. However, promoting well-being requires a comprehensive understanding of its multifaceted effects, both positive and negative, on employees, a challenge further intensified by the ongoing DT. While many companies recognize the benefits of DT, they often struggle with its implementation and the associated impacts on the workforce. Maturity models are a common tool to provide guidance during DT by serving as frameworks for assessing and developing organizational capabilities. In practice, maturity models are often too strategic, inflexible, and insufficiently user-centered. Furthermore, social aspects such as employee well-being have so far been largely neglected. To close this gap, an adaptable human-centered maturity model focusing on well-being was designed and empirically validated within the framework of this cumulative dissertation consisting of six papers, following the Design Science Research (DSR) approach. The model uniquely integrates basic psychological needs, physical health, and life stage perspectives, dimensions largely absent in existing DT maturity models. Overall, this PhD project advances the human-centered discourse on well-being by providing a practice-oriented maturity model that supports organizations in identifying the effects of DT on well-being and deriving appropriate courses of action.