Organizational agility
What is Organizational agility?
Organizational agility is often understood as a firm’s ability to detect and respond to opportunities, threats and changes [1].
This may include:
- the ability to assess and respond to customer needs
- the capacity to streamline internal processes and operations
- the capacity to identify and enter new markets and redefine the scope of its business
- the capacity to enter cooperative relationships
- the capacity to leverage human and information-based resources
- the ability to access, adopt and take advantage of new technologies and systems
Why is Organizational agility important?
Several studies show that firm performance is positively related with organizational agility [e.g. 2], and extant research has found that agility can be enabled or enhanced by use of ICT. In a review article on this topic, Tallon et al. [1] discuss technological, behavioral, organizational, structural, and environmental enablers of organizational agility.
However, researchers have also noted that ICT may hinder and sometimes impede organizational agility [e.g. 3]. Organizations may be constrained by inflexible ICT-systems, rigid architectures, or disparate technology silos so much so that ICT becomes a disabler for agility [4].
The relationship between ICT and organizational agility therefore represents a critical managerial issue and should be a key organizational concern.
Practical advice
A summary of advice based on a selection of research articles is given below (with references and links to internal article reviews where available):
IT investments:
- An aggressive IT investment strategy - i.e. seeking first mover advantages by investing in emerging technologies - may increase the likelihood of organizations to develop flexible IT infrastructures and digitalize business processes [2].
- Keeping current and experiment with new IT is important [5].
- Pushing IT investment decisions down the organizational hierarchy could increase process agility [6].
IS planning:
- Senior management and business units should be involved in IS planning, and comprehensive planning methodologies should be applied [2].
- Integration of business strategic planning and IT plans is important [5].
Internal processes in IS department:
- Ensuring flexibility and adaptability of routines and processes in order to meet changing IT requirements of the organization is important [2,5].
IT-business interaction:
- IT managers and business executives should interact closely to develop a clear vision regarding how IT contributes to business value [5] and ensure that IT resources support core competences of the firm [7]. The significance of informal communication (i.e. social alignment mechanisms) between business and IT executives is highlighted in this regard [8].
- Streamlining processes for developing and/or purchasing IT resources that generate strategic benefit, as well as discontinuance of IT applications that no longer generate value, can enable process agility [6].
References / sources
- Information technology and the search for organizational agility: A systematic review with future research possibilities.
Tallon, P.P., Queiroz, M., Coltman, T. & Sharma, R. (2019). The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2). - Exploring the relationships between IT competence, innovation capacity and organizational agility.
Ravichandran, T. (2018). The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 27(1). - Enterprise agility and the enabling role of information technology.
Overby, E., Bharadwaj, A. & Sambamurthy, V. (2006). European Journal of Information Systems, 15(2). - Change factors requiring agility and implications for IT.
van Oosterhout, M., Waarts, E. & van Hillegersberg, J. (2006). European Journal of Information Systems, 15(2). - Understanding the link between information technology capability and organizational agility: An empirical examination.
Lu, Y. & Ramamurthy, K. (2011). Management Information Systems Quarterly, 35(4). - The role of IT application orchestration capability in improving agility and performance.
Queiroz, M., Tallon, P.P., Sharma, R. & Coltman, T. (2018). The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 27(1). - Improving strategic flexibility with information technologies: Insights for firm performance in an emerging economy.
Chen, Y., Wang, Y., Nevo, S., Benitez, J. & Kou, G. (2017). Journal of Information Technology, 32(1). - Unraveling the alignment paradox: How does business—IT alignment shape organizational agility?
Liang, H., Wang, N., Xue, Y. & Ge, S. (2017). Information Systems Research, 28(4).
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e-Leadership through strategic alignment: An empirical study of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the digital age
Weizi Li.
Kecheng Liu.
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Abby Ghobadian.
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(2016),
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Gen Zhao.
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Technological Forecasting and Social Change
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George Lekakos.
John Krogstie.
(2019),
British Journal of Management
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Adrian Yeow.
Gary Pan.
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Agility in responding to disruptive digital innovation: Case study of an SME
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Adrian Yeow.
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Rajdeep Grewal.
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Mary C. Jones.
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(7) , 822-839.
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Paul P. Tallon.
Rajeev Sharma.
Tim Coltman.
(2018),
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, 27
(1) , 4-21.
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Magno Queiroz.
Paul P. Tallon.
Rajeev Sharma.
Tim Coltman.
(2018),
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, 27
(1) , 4-21.
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Yang Chen.
Yi Wang.
Saggi Nevo.
Jose Benitez.
Gang Kou.
(2017),
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(1) , 10-25.
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Yang Chen.
Yi Wang.
Saggi Nevo.
Jose Benitez.
Gang Kou.
(2017),
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, 32
(1) , 10-25.
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Bi, Gongbing.
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Hua, Zhongsheng.
(2018),
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(2018),
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