Identification and Definition of the New Leadership Paradigm in Industry 4.0

The objective of this paper is to construct a preliminary research concept of leadership 4.0, which serves as an introduction to further research, both theoretical and practical, as well as developing the foundations of an empirical leadership 4.0 matrix. It was realized while performing a broad literature analysis of the subject, as well as deductive and heuristic methods. Key findings relate to the turbulence of the environment affecting various areas of activity of modern organizations—from a utilitarian point of view. Nevertheless, it also emerges that in these contemporary conditions, the conceptual work of identifying and defining a new view of leadership is also not straightforward. Thus, some research limitations arise from the impossibility of creating the definition of leadership 4.0 as a result of the constantly changing conditions in which modern organisations are functioning. The presented research summarises the work conducted to identify leadership 4.0 hitherto, being an introduction to empirical research. The paper’s authors indicate a list of 12 factors that constitute the distinguishing features of a 4.0 leader. They are arranged in a deductive manner—placing the distinctive features of the 4.0 environment first, followed by the general (2–6) and specific (7–12) distinguishing features. This classification made it possible to create the definition of leadership 4.0.