Title: In pursuit of the agile organisation: a review and framework development on assessing organisational agility

Authors: André M. Carvalho; Paulo Sampaio; Eric Rebentisch; Lígia Conceição; Hugh McManus; João Álvaro Carvalho; Pedro Saraiva

Addresses: UNIDEMI, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NOVA School of Science and Technology, UNIDEMI, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal; Laboratório Associado de Sistemas Inteligentes, LASI, Escola de Engenharia – Universidade do Minho, Campus Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal ' Department of Production and Systems Engineering, ALGORITMI Research Centre, University of Minho, Campus Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal; Laboratório Associado de Sistemas Inteligentes, LASI, Guimarães, Portugal ' Sociotechnical Systems Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA ' Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), 4200-465 Porto, Portugal ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA ' Department of Information Systems, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal; Laboratório Associado de Sistemas Inteligentes, LASI, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal ' Chemical Engineering Department, University of Coimbra, 3030-790 Coimbra, Portugal; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Campus de Campolide, 1070-312 Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract: There are few frameworks for assessing Organisational Agility, and all have a few reported limitations: either lack of definition around the topic, leaning to a focus on agile methods or incomplete perspectives on Organisational Agility or the use of survey methodologies, which are exposed to respondent bias and show difficulty in accessing certain aspects of organisational life. A research opportunity has thus been identified regarding the development of an Organisational Agility assessment framework built on an in-depth, qualitative multi-case study methodology. Results demonstrate that the framework is able to consistently assess Agility across different organisations, allowing individual and cross-case analyses that support the identification of different profiles of Organisational Agility. As such, the Organisational Agility Assessment Framework supports both the scientific understanding and the practical pursuit of the "agile organisation", supporting Agility on organisation-wide, back-to-back processes and operations.

Keywords: organisational agility; assessment framework; capability management; agile organisations; maturity model; industrial engineering; systems engineering; engineering management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2024.138846

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2024 Vol.17 No.2, pp.193 - 220

Received: 07 Jul 2023
Accepted: 04 Dec 2023
Published online: 31 May 2024 *

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