Understanding organizational agility development for government- A process model of resource configuration

Abstract

Organizational agility - the ability to sense change and respond quickly - has been regarded as an important index of organizational performance in rapidly changing environments. However, agility research has overlooked the dynamics of the resource configuration process which covers resource selection, acquisition, development, and management. Prior studies mostly treated it as a ready starting point to enable agility. This study seeks to conceptualize this dynamic resource configuration process. Based on a case of Shanghai Social Security Card System project, we inductively develop a process model of resource configuration and agility development. This model reveals how to configure IT resources and institutional resources to create agility. It contributes to the organizational agility literature by elaborating the dynamic resource configuration process embedded in the agility development process. Governments may derive strategies and tactics from our finding to help them configure IT and institutional resources to develop organizational agility.