Abstract
This chapter examines the intersection of digital transformation, leadership, workforce strategy, and service delivery in Australian local governments (LGs) through a Sociotechnical Systems lens. As councils adopt Fourth and emerging Fifth Industrial Revolution technologies, ranging from automation, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based platforms to human-centric innovations prioritising ethics, collaboration, and sustainability, they face the dual imperative of achieving operational efficiency and preparing a future-ready workforce. In this context, leadership plays a critical role in shaping how digital transformation is communicated, implemented, and experienced across the organisation. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 24 senior council officers and six industry experts, as well as an analysis of 56 strategic council documents, including workforce strategies, digital transformation roadmaps, business plans, enterprise agreements, and annual reports, this chapter explores how Australian LGs navigate skill shortages, resistance to change, and intergenerational differences in digital readiness. It highlights leadership strategies that support the alignment of technology adoption with employee wellbeing, organisational goals, and community expectations, including fostering psychological safety, building trust, promoting ethical decision-making, and developing digital capability across teams. The findings underscore that effective digital transformation requires leadership capable of integrating social and technical considerations, mediating the impacts of technological change, and enabling adaptive, inclusive, and ethically grounded practices. By centering leadership as a key enabler of sociotechnical alignment, the chapter offers practical recommendations for workforce planning, change management, and people-centred digital leadership in an increasingly complex, technology-enabled public sector.