8.3.2 Agility and environmental attunement
Agility cannot be separated into internal factors, and external - environmental - factors. Much work has to be done on the relationship between the two spheres of planning for agility, nevertheless, the organisational boundaries are an insufficient basis to limit study of, or planning for agility (Rigby, et al 2001:178). Business relationships, individual and team networks with the community and other organisations, and actions by government and other organisations all shape the transfer of knowledge and the response an organisation make (Rigby et al, 2001:180-184). As such agility must be conceptualised beyond the 'walls' of the organisation being studied.
Environmental attunement refers to the fit between the organisation and the environment. For an organisation to survive it must be compatible with its environment. Environmental factors such as increased competitiveness, interdependence both within organisations and externally and increasing complexity of products and services lead to a need for organisations to have the ability to change.
Changes in the operating environment require realignment. Organisation agility generates this capacity. The need for organisations to develop agility will depend upon the level of change in the environment and the speed it takes place.
The implications of a changing organisational environment, where knowledge, complexity and speed of change have increased, is not just for organisations with inflexible, solidified organisational structures or procedures. Environmental turbulence argues for the development of individual and organisational capabilities that permit re-alignment of the organisation while maintaining performance targets.
For organisations to achieve environmental fit through alignment with the environment, the values, norms, processes, rewards systems, and performance must inculcate the importance of a people. Agility is achieved through capability development in the individual. Agile processes are denoted by individuals able to acquire new frames of reference, while still achieving current performance outcomes. Agility leads organisations invariably towards one of the two models identified as emerging organisational structures, these are -
- Network organisations where changing frame of reference to meet environmental needs is developed through changing staff capabilities or sourcing knowledge outside the organisation; or
- Through the development of a more holistic concept of an organisation into a workplace community where the values are community based and therefore can change with organisational needs.
A balance between these two options is achieved where networks of knowledge are created. Such knowledge is sourced under strategies that acknowledge the importance of knowledge development within individual employees, or individuals outside the organisation.
Building sustainable organisations therefore involves not just being agile, but embedding innovative thinking and behaviours that make people and systems agile.
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