Theory Of Organizational Agility Through Communication: The Scrum Model

Abstract

The digital revolution, often referred to as the third industrial revolution, began with the shift from analog and mechanical devices to digital technology in the second half of the twentieth century. It enabled the market to respond rapidly to customer preferences and implement changes according to market conditions and business environments. In this era of digital revolution, Agile development has become highlyvalued among organizations as they need to innovate faster than ever before to survive and thrive in an ever-changing and competitive business climate and respond to marketplace changes by developing new and innovative products, modernizing existing ones, or shifting business models. Without organizational agility, they risk being left behind or becoming obsolete. Amidst these challenges, the Agile paradigm, a product development approach that addresses business agility and deals with rapid change, rose from the software development industry. There are various types of Agile frameworks that help organizations become more agile, with Scrum being the most widely used. Scrum is a framework in product development that helps people, teams, and organizations generate value as they navigate through complexities. While many organizations in information technology, banking, insurance, healthcare, fuel, energy, and power generation are adopting Scrum, some still find it challenging to embrace it to improve their agility. In this research, I aimed to discover how organizations can better adopt an Agile mindset to keep up with the digital revolution. I conducted a comprehensive study on organizational agility and the Scrum framework and analyzed how both relate to three fundamental communication theories: Theory of Diffusion of Innovation, System Theory, and Behavioral Theory. Through sensemaking, I studied organizations that have adopted Scrum and examined why Agile is vital to organizations, what hinders organizations from adopting the Agile mindset, and how Scrum can help organizations adopt the agility mindset. Additionally, through a case study, I explored how Scrum can be used as a communication tool among geographically distributed teams. In this research, I discovered three essential factors in the successful adoption of organizational agility, namely, (1) principles and praxis; (2) mindset and behavior; and (3) innovation. These three pillars have one crucial aspect in common: communication. The results of my research show that these factors will help organizations in the paradigm shift from traditional product development to a more value-driven approach. Using the lenses of the Interpretative School and Montreal School of Thought in organizational communication, the results also support the premise that acts of communication in the Scrum Model can improve agility in organizations.