Agility in today's dynamic business environment. Part 1: agility in search of the origin and conceptual clarity

Abstract

Today, agility is an emerging key dimension of business excellence, whether companies deal with change and uncertainty in a reactive or proactive manner (Sushil, 2014). Besides the fact that agility allows companies to survive and extend their lifecycle, it is also a new weapon in the fight for the customer as it enables companies to quickly respond to new and constantly changing customer demands. However, the idea of being quick, moveable and flexible is not as new as it might seem. In fact, we encounter this word way back in history. This paper aims to explore the theoretical and historical background of agility. First we will explain why there is this sudden urge for agility, followed by an extended overview of the history. Furthermore, we will briefly focus on organisational agility with its different perspectives and research dimensions in order to fully understand its relevance for Human Resources. In the final chapter, related terms to agility will be discussed, thereby making a distinction between terms denoting the environment and terms denoting methods to deal with it. Important to note is that this paper is part of a series of whitepapers tackling the topic of agility in today’s business environment. Whereas this paper (Part 1: Agility: In search of the origin and conceptual clarity) discusses the historical background of the concept, the following papers will focus on organisational agility in specific, thereby explaining agility from an HR perspective.