Absorbing Continuous Change: Middle Managers’ Lived Experience of Digital Transformation and AI in the Romanian Market
Absorbing Continuous Change: Middle Managers’ Lived Experience of Digital Transformation and AI in the Romanian Market

Summary/Abstract: Digital transformation, accelerated by the rapid use of artificial intelligence, made change a constant condition of organisational life. While research increasingly recognises middle managers as critical actors in transformation, limited attention has been paid to how they experience and enact their role under conditions of ongoing, overlapping change. This study addresses this gap by examining the lived experience of middle managers navigating digital transformation and AI in private-sector organisations in Romania. Based on 18 semi-structured interviews, the study uses an inductive thematic approach to capture how MMs interpret, manage and sustain transformation while maintaining business-as-usual delivery. The findings identify six themes: sustained overload and competing demands; sensemaking and sensegiving as everyday managerial work; change management practised largely through learn-by-doing; DT and AI experienced as cumulative layers of work rather than time-limited programmes; enablement constraints shaped by top management, organisational culture and HR; and coping, motivation and learning strategies developed at the individual level. The results show that transformation outcomes depend on the micro-practices through which MMs translate strategy into workable action under pressure and ambiguity.

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