Design of transformation initiatives implementing organisational agility: an empirical study

Abstract

AbstractThis study uses 125 responses from companies of all sizes predominantly headquartered in Germany, Switzerland, France and UK to reveal perceptions of the drivers of organisational agility. It further investigates current understanding of managing principles of multiple organisational dimensions such as culture, values, leadership, organisational structure, processes and others to achieve greater organisational agility. The data set is disaggregated into four major profiles of agile organisations: laggards, execution specialists, experimenters, and leaders. The approach to agile transformation is analysed by each of those profiles. While the positive effect from a more holistic approach is confirmed, leaders tend to focus more on processes and products rather than project work. Respondents perceive that IT, product development and research are most agile functions within their organisations, while human resources, finance and administration are considered being not agile. Furthermore, organisations with higher levels of organisational agility tend to use more than one agile scaling framework. Implications on theories of agile transformations and organisational design are discussed.