IT-enabled organizational agility –proposition of a new framework

The environment of companies is nowadays changing continuously. This rapid evolution is related to several aspects: economic, political, technological, regulatory, social and ecological. In order to gain competitive advantage, firms should be able to adapt so as to identify opportunities quickly, launch innovative products and comply with local and international regulations. Organizational agility, a key dynamic capability of the firm, allows it to sense environmental change and respond adequately. In this work, we present a new conceptual framework highlighting agility’s enablers and their direct/indirect effect on firm’s performance. Based on a systematic literature review, we identified the main agility’s enablers groups (IT, process, knowledge management, innovation, organization structure, human resources), and the characteristics of an agile enterprise (speed, flexibility, awareness, responsiveness, integration and competency). In addition, we focus in our proposed IT framework, on the impact of IT besides the complementary effects of the other agility’s enablers, on fostering organizational agility and thereby on enhancing firm performance. © 2005 – ongoing JATIT & LLS.