Badakhshan, P., Conboy, K., Grisold, T., & vom Brocke, J. (2019). Agile business process management: A systematic literature review and an integrated framework. Business Process Management Journal, 26(6), 1505-1523.
This research is a comprehensive literature review in which the authors identify the principles of agile work to optimize business processes. Based on the study’s results, conclusions about the value of emerging technologies and the relevance of flexibility are cited as the key findings. In addition, the researchers argue agile operating principles differ from traditional ones and require specific forms of governance in organizations. Change initiatives are inevitable, and to increase the flexibility of all processes, transforming individual aspects is important, for instance, business models or leadership styles. The article does not consider specific examples of organizations, but for the raised topic, they are optional since the key emphasis is on implications for businesses from a theoretical rather than a practical perspective.
Compared to the other studies involved, this article offers an overview of the principles of agility. Individual findings are valuable in the context of the considered management area, but the research cannot be regarded as a practical guide to the implementation of relevant approaches. At the same time, a large number of credible resources are utilized as a justification base, which increases the reliability of the findings.
The arguments about the importance of adapting business processes and the potential implications of agility for organizational development will be used in the future discussion. The role of technologies in this process will be cited as one of the critical factors to increase flexibility. The mechanisms of agility will be considered in the context of the influence on the cultural, workforce, and other aspects of managerial activities.
Jaggars, D., & Jones, D. (2018). An agile planning and operations framework. Performance Measurement and Metrics, 19(2), 121-126.
The main purpose is to identify the principles of development and implementation of agile planning to increase flexibility and achieve new management capabilities. The findings show this process is accompanied by organizational development barriers and can involve resilience to changes among the staff involved. The researchers pay particular attention to the functions of project leaders and note their role in coordinating all related processes, including the preparation of measurement metrics to monitor efficiency and productivity. This article focuses on a single organization as a platform for implementing agile management principles, but the mentioned activities may be utilized in different work modes and areas.
This article is valuable because, compared to some other studies involved, it offers a detailed framework for optimizing management in accordance with the agility approach. The functions of all stakeholders are clearly assigned, and tasks are set based on the needs of a particular organization. However, the study affects the organization that is not related to the business environment, which makes the findings less valuable for analyzing the entrepreneurial field. In addition, the role of technology is not mentioned, which makes it difficult to assess the tools involved in optimization.
This study can be usefully applied in the future discussion as a guideline for planning organizational development through agile principles. Performance metrics will be cited as a valuable framework for assessing the results of work mode transformation in the context of updated activities. Leadership roles will be cited as crucial criteria that determine the sustainability of organizational development under new conditions and updated growth goals.
Khalil, C., & Khalil, S. (2020). Exploring knowledge management in agile software development organizations. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 16(2), 555-569.
In this article, the authors want to fill a research gap regarding how agile technological advancement contributes to organizational development through knowledge management initiatives. An appropriate theoretical model helps find the relationship between the variables under consideration and reveals the specifics of the operations of agile environments compared to traditional ones. Technological development, particularly software engineering, correlates positively with agile practices and allows establishing sustainable knowledge management. The authors offer a wide range of support resources and evaluate the work of 12 organizations selected as a research sample. Knowledge management is assessed as a significant criterion that determines the effectiveness of building agile enterprises and leadership in them.
This article offers an in-depth discussion of knowledge management and its importance in achieving agility in business. One of the resources involved also touches on this criterion, but in the work under consideration, the authors focus on the technological aspect of optimization, which allows implementing the set tasks. Although technology development is exclusively about software products, this factor plays a crucial role in justifying the relevance of digital interventions.
In the future discussion, the arguments of this study will be applied about the importance of combining knowledge management and technological development as steps towards building agility. In addition, the value of this approach will be mentioned in the context of IT organizations where innovative solutions play a significant role. The considered results of the targeted work will be presented as the findings that make it possible to prove the correlation between the corresponding management modes and the importance of engaging advanced technological resources.
Mergel, I., Ganapati, S., & Whitford, A. B. (2020). Agile: A new way of governing. Public Administration Review, 81(1), 161-165.
The main research objective is to highlight the value and implications of agility in modern management programs. The authors pay much attention to the results of the implementation of relevant initiatives and describe agile procedures from the perspective of influencing various areas of administration, including governance in general and individual management spheres. In addition, technology development is seen as an important criterion for increasing agility and organizational development. One of the key arguments is the need to transform classic bureaucratic organizational cultures to successfully implement the necessary principles that increase the flexibility of processes. Although no specific examples are provided, the article offers a broad academic basis for substantiating specific hypotheses and findings.
Of all the involved studies, this article offers the broadest description of agility and its impacts on modern business models. The mentioned forms of management provide an opportunity to assert the universality of this organizational concept and its value for management outcomes. Moreover, much attention is paid to the challenges that accompany transformation processes, and bureaucratic culture, forms of leadership, and some other factors are proposed as the constraints to take into account.
The definition of agility and its key features will be mentioned in the future discussion because the study in question offers an in-depth description of the concept. In addition, the arguments about the importance of transforming traditional business management models will be made, which is also an important topic. Associated difficulties will be included in the discussion to understand potential barriers and how to overcome them.
Oliva, F. L., Couto, M. H. G., Santos, R. F., & Bresciani, S. (2019). The integration between knowledge management and dynamic capabilities in agile organizations. Management Decision, 57(8), 1960-1979.
The authors of the study set the task to determine how much knowledge management and organizational agility affect the efficiency of enterprise management. Through interviews as data collection tools, they find out how the contexts of work in optimization modes match the interests and preferences of modern organizations. The notion of an agile company is clearly defined, and related characteristics are offered, including flexibility to change and adjusting an operating regime based on new requirements. Knowledge management is seen as a valuable criterion for developing the necessary cycles and providing a framework for testing and measuring planned results. Dynamic capabilities are viewed as a meaningful perspective that agility in business processes helps achieve.
Along with one more involved study, this article offers an in-depth discussion of knowledge management and its positive impact on the formation of an agile organization. The main limitation of this research is the focus on one case study. Nevertheless, due to the integration of several critical concepts, the authors come to important conclusions about the need to combine knowledge management and agility to achieve dynamic business capabilities.
Due to the arguments about the importance of agility as one of the criteria for successful work in the modern business environment, this article will be mentioned in the future discussion. The sustainability of management in the updated environment will be considered as a factor that largely depends on how effectively knowledge management is established in organizations. Moreover, the importance of utilizing an appropriate combination of agility and knowledge management will be mentioned in the context of practical benefits.
Discussion
The value of transforming management regimes to meet the required operational tasks is high in view of dynamic market trends and the need to establish sustainable control over the implementation of planned tasks. In this regard, the concept of agility has become one of the approaches increasingly mentioned in the field of administration. Creating agile organizations is accompanied by a number of changes, and the emphasis is on achieving flexibility as a factor in adapting business models to specific objectives. Along with agility, related criteria are discussed as the steps towards achieving the desired goals. These include organizational development, knowledge management, change initiatives, and other actions designed to optimize the working environment and transform it into an agile one. Without these factors, achieving flexibility is problematic, including due to the attendant obstacles, for instance, bureaucratic culture. This discussion proposes to evaluate the findings of credible studies on the principles of agility, identify the criteria to take into account for the implementation of the necessary plans, and offer new research perspectives based on the authors’ findings.
Many studies have focused on business agility and the functions this approach is designed to perform. Mergel et al. (2020) define this concept and note it concerns driving changes and moving from standard operating procedures to more flexible working methods. Badakhshan et al. (2019) complement the discussion of the relevance of such transformations by arguing flexibility can optimize organizational development and help achieve better business results. Moreover, the available findings suggest interventions are more likely to be successful when the associated procedures are performed responsibly, including preparing performance metrics and measuring instruments (Badakhshan et al., 2019; Jaggars & Jones, 2018). The relevance of technologies in the process of creating agile organizations is an important aspect discussed in various studies. Badakhshan et al. (2019) mention technological development as one of the essential criteria for the successful transformation of the organizational environment and, consequently, enhancing the intellectual base. Khalil and Khalil (2020) also draw attention to this aspect and argue the involvement of effective innovation resources, whether in IT or other spheres, is positively correlated with the optimization of management regimes. The lack of technological development, in turn, is fraught with stagnation and can hinder the natural movement towards progressive methods of administration. Another significant concept raised in some of the used studies is knowledge management. According to Khalil and Khalil (2020), for creating agility, this approach is the most effective when combined with technological advancement. Stimulating subordinates’ productive work by creating an environment for sustainable knowledge sharing, for instance, by introducing remote communication tools, is a valuable prerequisite for successful changes (Oliva et al., 2019). Finally, as Jaggars and Jones (2018) state, this is crucial to adapt leadership roles to the desired mode of operation to stimulate positive changes in organizational development. Mergel et al. (2020) list some of the challenges of working in this direction, for instance, bureaucratic culture and the need to introduce new leadership concepts. However, effective control is an essential criterion for creating organizational agility.
Subsequent research on advancing agile principles in management may address deeper factors that can enhance the success of optimization programs. For instance, Khalil and Khalil (2020) view software tools as a potentially powerful technology to apply, but in addition to this instrument, other developments can be applied, such as artificial intelligence algorithms. Based on the study by Badakhshan et al. (2019), different business models can be platforms for implementing agility principles. Accordingly, the variability of these models and their relevance to specific initiatives can be further explored. As Oliva et al. (2019) state, knowledge management is of great importance in the context of organizational development, and relevant methods for implementing this concept in distinctive scenarios can be studied. To complement the findings by Mergel et al. (2020), more attention should be paid to the barriers to introducing agility into the business framework, and the article by Jaggars and Jones (2018) can be developed by evaluating flexible management approaches in various business environments. These areas of study can expand the knowledge of the value of creating agile organizations.
References
Badakhshan, P., Conboy, K., Grisold, T., & vom Brocke, J. (2019). Agile business process management: A systematic literature review and an integrated framework.Business Process Management Journal, 26(6), 1505-1523.
Jaggars, D., & Jones, D. (2018). An agile planning and operations framework. Performance Measurement and Metrics, 19(2), 121-126.
Khalil, C., & Khalil, S. (2020). Exploring knowledge management in agile software development organizations. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 16(2), 555-569.
Mergel, I., Ganapati, S., & Whitford, A. B. (2020). Agile: A new way of governing. Public Administration Review, 81(1), 161-165.
Oliva, F. L., Couto, M. H. G., Santos, R. F., & Bresciani, S. (2019). The integration between knowledge management and dynamic capabilities in agile organizations. Management Decision, 57(8), 1960-1979.