Reclaiming the Soul of the University in an Agile Corporate World

Exploring The Essence Of Organisational Agility

Agility is associated with being flexible, adaptable, nimble, and fast moving. When applied to an organisation, being agile means that the product or service is created in a minimalist yet highly responsive way so that it is provided when the client needs it and in the way the client wants it. Importantly, the achievement of organizational agility imbues a team approach. It is described as a product or service improvement methodology centred on iterative development where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organising cross-functional teams. The ultimate value in agile organisational performance is that it enables teams to deliver value faster, with greater quality and predictability, and greater capacity to respond to change and client demands (Rigby, Southerland & Noble, 2018). Hence, it is proposed that organisational agile methods and processes generally promote a disciplined project management process founded on a leadership philosophy that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, teamwork, self-organization and accountability, rapid delivery of high-quality products or services, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and organisational goals. In this way it is argued that agile organisational leadership can resolve employee disconnection, resistance and disengagement which prevent organisations from being able to adapt to today’s requirements (Agile Business Consortium, 2021) quickly and successfully.