The Mediating Role of Collaborative Decision Making on the Effect of Digital Literacy and Leadership on Military Soldiers’ Professional Performance

Abstract

Digital age has created an unregulated war environment and there are non-state actors, armed groups, terrorists, and criminals which should be faced by established governments. Therefore, in the military context today, soldiers as national security guards no longer face physical forms of combat only, information, however, has became the front line in the national security landscape and needs to be treated equally with the land, sea and air defense dimensions. This study aims to reveal how digital literacy and leadership improve professional performance of soldiers through collaborative decision making as mediator, which can be applied not only in the military environment but also in soldier’s interaction with the civilian community in their social life. Quantitative approach with an explanatory survey is used in this study in order to explain symptoms and determine the causal relationship between variables, while the unit of analysis is soldiers from various divisions and ranks with a sample size of 3,598 soldiers from all over Indonesia. The results show that increasing digital literacy and leadership will improve professional performance of the soldiers through collaborative decision making. Leaders should initiate digital leadership in order to develop digital literacy of the soldiers as well as employ digital based internal collaborative decision-making platforms in order to improve not only the professional performance of soldiers but also the organization effectiveness in general.