Influence of digitalization on the requirements and competencies in the area of sales management

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,8, University of applied sciences, Düsseldorf, language: English, abstract: Can humans be replaced by robots or intelligent systems such as artificial intelligence? Are they becoming less important because of the digital revolution? Are humans changing in terms of the orientation of their competences, also due to the effects of the digital revolution? These questions are often asked in the context of the work between man and machine. In order to find about more about a possible change in competences, caused by the effects of the digital revolution, this Master thesis deals with the 'Influence of digitalization on the requirements and competencies in the area of sales management An empirical study of DAX companies and educational institutions' First of all, a basic theoretical knowledge will be provided in order to work on and answer this topic. On the one hand, the digital transformation, the area of leadership and on the other hand the area of competence takeover by intelligent systems will be presented. To collect and evaluate data, an empirical study was conducted at DAX companies and Germany's leading universities and colleges in order to be able to identify possible shifts in competence on the basis of valid data. The result of the empirical analysis is a competence structure, which results in an interesting form. The study has shown that, contrary to expectations, the technical and IT-heavy competences as well as the competences related to the digital revolution are not as important for leaders as other competences, such as personal, ethical and social-communicative competences, which are important for leaders acting in the digital age. This and other results, such as the distribution within the competence classes and whether a competence shift from man to machine and other intelligent systems is possible, are presented in the final part of this Master thesis.