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Agility in the workplace: Conceptual analysis, contributing factors, and practical examples

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2021

Moritz K. H. Petermann Open the ORCID record for Moritz K. H. Petermann [Opens in a new window]  and
Hannes Zacher Open the ORCID record for Hannes Zacher [Opens in a new window]
Moritz K. H. Petermann*
Affiliation:
Daimler & Leipzig University
Hannes Zacher*
Affiliation:
Leipzig University
*
*Corresponding authors. Emails: moritz.petermann@uni-leipzig.de; hannes.zacher@uni-leipzig.de
*Corresponding authors. Emails: moritz.petermann@uni-leipzig.de; hannes.zacher@uni-leipzig.de
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Abstract

Over the last few years, the concept of agility has become increasingly popular in organizations. Companies are hoping to foster speed, adaptability, and innovation by rolling out an agile strategy, implementing agile methods, and creating an agile mind-set among leaders and employees. There is, however, much ambiguity about what the concept of agility entails and how it can be successfully implemented in an organization. The purpose of this practice-focused paper is to organize the extant agility literature for readers by giving an overview of different definitions of agility; outlining evidence-based factors that contribute to agility at the individual, team, and organizational levels; and describing three practical examples at a large German car company. Finally, the authors suggest steps that organizations can take to increase agility in their workforce.

Keywords

agilityagile workforceadaptabilityinnovation
Type
Practice Forum
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 599 - 609
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

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