Examining Digital Leadership, Digital Transformation, and Employee Engagement in Public Sector Discourse on X (Twitter): A Social Network Analysis and Sentiment Mining Approach
Abstract
Purpose – This study maps and analyzes public-sector discourse on digital leadership, digital transformation, and employee engagement on X (Twitter). It aims to identify the dominant framing of the conversation, its sentiment orientation, its thematic composition, and the actors who shape its diffusion.
Design/methods/approach – The study adopts a quantitative, exploratory computational social science design. A corpus of 288 English-language posts was retrieved from X (Twitter) between 27 January and 28 July 2026 using Boolean keyword queries on the SocialX analytics platform. Three methods were combined: sentiment mining using a hybrid lexicon and machine-learning classifier, zero-shot thematic classification, and social network analysis (SNA) examining centrality and community structure.
Findings – "Government" is the dominant topic of discussion, with sentiment that is predominantly negative (73%), followed by neutral (23%) and positive (4%), indicating a critical and politically charged discourse. Zero-shot classification shows that most posts address government subjects (66%), followed by technology (28%) and human resources (6%). The interaction network is low-density and highly centralized with a hub-and-spoke structure, suggesting influence-driven rather than community-driven diffusion, while temporal analysis reveals an event-driven pattern with an early peak and subsequent decline.
Research implications/limitations – The study provides evidence-based recommendations for digital communication and reputation management in public-sector organizations through an integrated framework that connects sentiment polarity, theme orientation, and network position. Its limitations include a small sample size, a limited time frame, and the absence of independent domain-specific validation of the classifier. Future research could employ cross-platform designs, larger longitudinal corpora, and manually validated sentiment models.
Originality/value – The study integrates affective (sentiment), thematic (zero-shot), and relational (network) analyses into a single framework for examining public-sector digital discourse, linking what the public feels, which topics dominate, and who controls the flow of information.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abdulkareem, A. K., & Ramli, R. M. (2022). Does trust in e-government influence the performance of e-government? An integration of information system success model and public value theory. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 16(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-01-2021-0001
Abhari, K. (2025). Employee participation in digital transformation: From digitalization sentiment to transformation predisposition. Information & Management, 62(8), 104212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2025.104212
Abner, G., Alam, A., & Cho, H. (2023). What is necessary for high employee engagement and satisfaction? A look at the best places to work in the Federal Government Index. Public Administration Review, 83(4), 974–981. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13576
Adade, D., & de Vries, W. T. (2024). An extended TOE framework for local government technology adoption for citizen participation: Insights for city digital twins for collaborative planning. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 19(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/TG-01-2024-0025
Albannai, N. A., Raziq, M. M., Malik, M., Scott-Kennel, J., & Igoe, J. (2024). Unraveling the role of digital leadership in developing digital dynamic capabilities for the digital transformation of firms. Benchmarking: An International Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-10-2023-0756
Andestari, Y., Sabellah, R. E., & Muafi, M. (2024). Sustainable HR management in the digital era: A conceptual framework. In Opportunities and Risks in AI for Business Development (Vol. 1, pp. 1015–1023). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65203-5_87
Avolio, B. J., Kahai, S., & Dodge, G. E. (2000). E-leadership: Implications for theory, research, and practice. The Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 615–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(00)00062-X
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056
Balasubramanian, A., Zou, V., Narayana, H., You, C., Luceri, L., & Ferrara, E. (2024). A public dataset tracking social media discourse about the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election on Twitter/X. ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2411.00376. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.00376
Freeman, L. C. (1979). Centrality in social networks: Conceptual clarification. Social Networks, 1(3), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(78)90021-7
Gnanapriya, S., & Anandan, K. (2025). Sentiment analysis in political discourse: Understanding public opinion from social media. E-Learning and Digital Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/20427530251343205
Harff, D., Stehr, P., & Schmuck, D. (2025). Revisiting opinion leadership in the digital realm: Social media influencers as proximal mass opinion leaders. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251336441
Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287
Kane, G. C., Phillips, A. N., Copulsky, J. R., & Andrus, G. R. (2019). The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation. MIT Press.
Katz, E., & Lazarsfeld, P. F. (1955). Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. Free Press.
Katz, S. D. (1991). Film directing shot by shot: Visualizing from concept to screen. Michael Wiese Productions.
Kim, S. Y., Ganesan, K., Dickens, P., & Panda, S. (2021). Public sentiment toward solar energy—Opinion mining of Twitter using a transformer-based language model. Sustainability, 13(5), 2673. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052673
Liu, B. (2015). Sentiment Analysis: Mining Opinions, Sentiments, and Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
Newman, M. E. J. (2010). Networks: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Öngel, V., Günsel, A., Gençer Çelik, G., Altındağ, E., & Tatlı, H. S. (2024). Digital leadership’s influence on individual creativity and employee performance: A view through the generational lens. Behavioral Sciences, 14(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14010003
Qiao, L. (2024). Digital leadership, innovation, and employee performance: evidence from South Korea. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 41(2), 301–320.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th ed.). Free Press.
Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2010). Defining and measuring work engagement: bringing clarity to the concept. In Work Engagement: A Handbook of Essential Theory and Research (pp. 10–24). Psychology Press.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471
Ting, T. T. (2024). Digital government: Social media as a mediator in technology acceptance with political knowledge, interest, and participation. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 14(4), e202454. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/15145
Van Wart, M., Roman, A., Wang, X., & Liu, C. (2019). Operationalizing the definition of e-leadership: Identifying the elements of e-leadership. Public Administration Review, 79(6), 853–866. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13040
Vial, G. (2019). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2), 118–144.
Wardana, I. M. A., Salain, P. P. P., & Dwinata, I. P. W. (2024). Transformational leadership and employee satisfaction on employee loyalty: The mediating role of employee engagement. Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis, 15(2), 314–331. https://doi.org/10.18196/mb.v15i2.22160
Wardani, A., Baihaqi, & Nohong, M. (2025). The effect of transformational leadership on employee performance with employee engagement and job satisfaction as moderator variables. Journal of Research in Social Science, Economics and Management, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.59141/jrssem.v5i2.1081
Westerman, G., Bonnet, D., & McAfee, A. (2014). Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation. Harvard Business Review Press.
Yusuf, M., Satia, H. M. R., Bernardianto, R. B., Nurhasanah, Irwani, & Setyoko, P. I. (2023). Exploring the role of digital leadership and digital transformation on the performance of the public sector organizations. International Journal of Data and Network Science, 7(4), 1983–1990. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.ijdns.2023.6.014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/tjr.v8i2.104781
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
The International Journal Business Review (The Jobs Review) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
View My Stats