Establishing the Foundations to Measure Organizational Agility for Military Organizations

Jeremy Geiger,John Elshaw,David Jacques

doi:10.3390/systems8040044

Abstract

There is an ongoing demand for organizations to become more agile in order to prosper amongst their competitors. Many military organizations have declared a renewed focus towards organizational agility. The goal of this research is to isolate the variables needed to measure organizational agility (OA) in military organizations, allowing for the future development of a suitable method to measure OA without the need to interact with outside organizations. This article begins by providing a suitable and formal definition of organizational agility by exploring and analyzing relevant scholarly literature on the subject. Related terms, such as organizational resiliency, flexibility, robustness, versatility, and adaptability are also explored to examine their definition boundaries and any overlapping areas. Existing methods to measure organizational agility are examined and summarized, and the current limitations to their application are highlighted. Previous studies to find characteristics associated with organizational agility were also examined, and an initial set of 88 organizational agility characteristics was built. Since these included possible redundant or overlapping characteristics, the Q-sort method was employed to discover, analyze, and eliminate redundant items from the dataset, ultimately resulting in 64 unique characteristics. The result is a suitable definition for organization agility applicable to military organizations and a list of potential associated characteristics that summarizes related research to date. This groundwork establishes the foundation to conduct a multi-organization study to further refine the characteristic list and ultimately develop a method to measure organizational agility.

Highlights

Over the last decade we have seen smaller, more efficient agile organizations outmaneuver traditionally established institutions
The Q-sort method was complete in its entirety
OpenFirst, discussion deliberation encouraged, and it took both judges to agreeapplicable before a definition waswas found that canIn bemost utilized in the defense sector andbetween for future

Summary

Introduction

Over the last decade we have seen smaller, more efficient agile organizations outmaneuver traditionally established institutions. Evident in the business sector, this phenomenon has gained significant momentum in the defense sector. Executives, Congress, and the service chiefs have all come to the same conclusion; that a more agile, flexible, and technologically advanced force is needed to outdo their adversaries [1]. Nation-state militaries spend a significant amount of financial resources and are expected to succeed against their opponent, yet oftentimes, they do not directly engage with their opponents for decades at a time. What happens in a sector where innovation and agility are both vitally important, but a timely and consistent feedback mechanism to measure one’s progress is virtually non-existent?

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Conclusion