Agile Working is a phrase that is often bandied about by organizations in a bid to work more effectively and reduce real estate costs. But what impact does agile working have on organizational culture and the traditional command and control hierarchy? The demographics, attitudes and physical make-up of the workforce has changed dramatically over the past decade, which in turn has influenced organizational culture.
Agile working is defined by the Agile Future Forum as a set of practices that allow organisations to establish an optimal workforce and provide the benefits of a greater match between the resources and the demand for services, increased productivity and improved talent attraction and retention.
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Leadership Connections research in 2015 from Cirrus revealed agility as the number one priority for business leaders. Hayward argues that becoming an agile organization has many benefits such as innovation, competitiveness and customer focus but business leaders need to be clear about the organization’s purpose and goals. “You need to cut through bureaucracy and prioritize ruthlessly, focusing your effort on a few key goals rather than engaging in multiple initiatives. All of these things can be difficult to do because they often require significant cultural and behavioral shifts. In my experience the biggest barriers to agile working are a tolerance for poor behavior and an acceptance of a conservative mindset that supports the status quo and is resistant to change.”
How employees have occupied their individual workspaces has changed dramatically over the last few years. Workplace Trends research commissioned by Gensler revealed that in the average workplace, individual workspaces are occupied only 55% of the time on average. Organizations are offering options to work somewhere other than the company’s head office at least to some employees.
Hierarchical, command and control type structures fail to support agile working, argues Dr Simon Hayward, chief executive officer of Cirrus. “If a company wants to become more agile, leaders and managers need to devolve responsibility and decision-making across the business. This requires that they "let go" and trust others. The pace of change is so relentless in today’s world that agility has become absolutely critical in order to respond to challenges such as the demands of customers, the digital explosion and rapidly changing marketplaces. Managers need to enable front-line employees to react swiftly to these challenges. By providing clear focus and direction, managers can ensure everyone is clear about the part they play in achieving goals with speed.”
The barriers to mobile working are complex and relate to issues of work organization and culture, comments Professor James Faulconbridge at Lancaster University Management School. “How work is done is key. If organizations are still relying on paper documents or if meetings are the main way work is achieved, mobile work can be difficult. Similarly if a culture of presence, a Fordist time management system that equates hours worked with productivity or managerial surveillance of workers and little trust dominate in an organization, then working on the move is unlikely to be encouraged.”
Ksenia Zheltoukhova, research advisor for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development warns that not all organizations are ready to jump on the "agile working" bandwagon. “Not all organizations suit agile working. It depends on the culture of the organization and the nature of work. The main thing is the cultural aspect: How do employee work together?”
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Rick Lash, senior client partner for Korn Ferry Hay Group argued that leaders cannot just push a button and turn a hierarchical, process-orientated workforce into an agile workforce overnight. “Agility is a particular set of solutions to solve problems but it’s a mistake to apply agility to everything in an organization.”
Senior leadership alignment is another key factor when considering the impact of agile on organizational culture, comments Lash. “Often senior leadership lacks the in-depth understanding of agile processes and under-estimate their role in ensuring collaboration across the organization is communicated and reinforced. Perhaps more importantly, senior leaders play a key role in identifying and removing barriers to organizational collaboration but may focus on achieving short-term results.
But the phrase "agile working" can have different meanings to employees and businesses, argues Professor Sir Cary Cooper of Alliance Manchester Business School . “What senior management mean by the word "agile" is using resources in whichever way you would like to use it. For employees and trade unions, it has a different meaning around flexibility. Agility from a senior manager point of view means less structure, less hierarchy and more hot-desking and being able to go whenever and wherever you need it and the employee having the open mind to do that.”
