The importance of information and data literacy of leaders in a turbulent environment of digital business transformation

The Council of Europe's "Digital Competence Framework for Citizens DigComp 2.1" defines the development of digital competences in five areas: information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, content creation, security and problem solving. The subject of this paper is information and data literacy of school principals, where, starting from the assumption that information and data literacy is extremely important in the leadership process, the aim of the research is to determine how it affects leadership processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted on a sample of primary school principals from three geographically and economically related counties - Varaždin, Međimurje and Koprivnica-Križevci counties, using a questionnaire containing original metrics of influential factors of information and data literacy, which examined the knowledge, skills and attitudes of principals about the importance of information and data literacy in the decision- making process. The analysis and interpretation of the results confirmed the hypothesis that information and data literacy significantly influences school management processes during COVID-19 pandemic and concludes that it, as one of the five areas of digital literacy, is extremely important for decision-makers , while the specific parameters obtained by the research are applied to the reference framework of information and data literacy in the school management process, which suggests the need for sequential and specific education of school principals in the field of information and data literacy.