The role of knowledge, control, and work processes within agility

TY - GEN

T1 - The role of knowledge, control, and work processes within agility

AU - Brasen, Lucas Peter Høj

AU - Tambo, Torben

PY - 2021/11/8

Y1 - 2021/11/8

N2 - Agility has through the last two decades become a significant part of organizational strategy, to ensure higher effectiveness, learning capabilities, and competitiveness in an increasingly complex and competitive business environment. However, even though agile as a term has existed for only 20 years and started specifically as a method of working with software development, agility and methods derived from agility have spread to almost every part of the organization. From production optimization to project management and large-scale organizational frameworks. The use of agile methods has generally provided improvements for the organizations that choose to adopt them, but a steep learning curve contributes to a need for skilled people. This paper seeks to establish key theoretical fundamentals on agility related to management, leadership, and governance, by reviewing literature on agility. The key findings in the paper suggest that the essential processes of; control, work, and knowledge are significant contributors to ensuring success with agility. The paper will highlight these processes and elaborate on the three processes' relevance for organizational agile success, through the means of management, leadership, and governance. The categorization of the three processes is conducted through a theoretical taxonomic understanding of agility in organizations and literature. The practical implications of the paper are a specific outline of control, knowledge, and work processes within agile methods, specifically as the field of agile both in research and application have become muddled with frameworks and methods build upon the Agile Manifestos. The research implications of the paper are the showcasing of processes within agility that has potential for exploitation both in an organizational perspective, but also to support the authors' further research into deriving agility from a development specific focus to an operational aspect of the organization, with a production centered approach. This also correlates with the originality of the paper, which relates to theorizing on the implications of agility from development processes to the production-centered operations of the organization.

AB - Agility has through the last two decades become a significant part of organizational strategy, to ensure higher effectiveness, learning capabilities, and competitiveness in an increasingly complex and competitive business environment. However, even though agile as a term has existed for only 20 years and started specifically as a method of working with software development, agility and methods derived from agility have spread to almost every part of the organization. From production optimization to project management and large-scale organizational frameworks. The use of agile methods has generally provided improvements for the organizations that choose to adopt them, but a steep learning curve contributes to a need for skilled people. This paper seeks to establish key theoretical fundamentals on agility related to management, leadership, and governance, by reviewing literature on agility. The key findings in the paper suggest that the essential processes of; control, work, and knowledge are significant contributors to ensuring success with agility. The paper will highlight these processes and elaborate on the three processes' relevance for organizational agile success, through the means of management, leadership, and governance. The categorization of the three processes is conducted through a theoretical taxonomic understanding of agility in organizations and literature. The practical implications of the paper are a specific outline of control, knowledge, and work processes within agile methods, specifically as the field of agile both in research and application have become muddled with frameworks and methods build upon the Agile Manifestos. The research implications of the paper are the showcasing of processes within agility that has potential for exploitation both in an organizational perspective, but also to support the authors' further research into deriving agility from a development specific focus to an operational aspect of the organization, with a production centered approach. This also correlates with the originality of the paper, which relates to theorizing on the implications of agility from development processes to the production-centered operations of the organization.

KW - Agility

KW - Control Processes

KW - Iterative methods

KW - Knowledge Processes

KW - Work Processes

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122970820&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.34190/MLG.21.083

DO - 10.34190/MLG.21.083

M3 - Article in proceedings

T3 - European Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance

SP - 83

EP - 89

BT - Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance, ECMLG 2021

PB - Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited

ER -