Purpose: The proactive activities, as well as the traditional management mode of enterprises, have undergone profound changes in response to the wave of digital transformation. Consequently, understanding the impact of enterprise digitalization on employee taking charge and its underlying influence mechanisms has become a crucial topic for organizational researchers to explore. Taking a self-determination perspective, this study aims to investigate the mechanism through which enterprise digitalization influences employee taking charge.Design/methodology/approach: To achieve this objective, using multi-level structural equation model and bootstrapping, the study collected multi-source data from 358 samples from 30 technology enterprises.Findings: These results reveal that enterprise digitalization exerts a significant positive effect on employee taking charge via three parallel mediators of job autonomy, self-efficacy and closeness with companions.Originality/value: Overall, the study expands upon the relationship between enterprise digitalization and employee challenge behaviors while offering valuable insights for implementing enterprise digitalization initiatives and facilitating employees' absorption of digitized practices.