The impact of information technology on organisational agility in Iranian firms

Abstract

Today's business environment is characterised by an increasing intensity of competition, globalisation of the world economy, rapid technological changes, and the growing expectations of customers, suppliers and the workforce. This turbulent and dynamic business environment forces the organisations to be as agile as possible to exploit the best opportunities in achieving their organisational goals and success. This capability helps them to explore, adapt and react to the unanticipated changes in order to get a better place in the competitive market by improving the time cycle for managerial actions as rapidly as possible. This study examines the use of Information Technology (IT) in enhancing the agility in organisations, and its effect on the four main factors of agility. Furthermore, the impact of IT on organisational agility in Iranian firms is empirically tested through a questionnaire distributed among the managers of these organisations. The findings show that IT has become critical to the success of organisations and to making the firms more agile.