MACMILLAN The Agile Imperative: Teams, Organizations and Society under Reconstruction? (Dynamics of Virtual Work)

In an ever-changing working environment, customer and workplace demands have brought new challenges to how we organize and manage work. Increasingly, this is addressed by the idea of 'agility.' From its beginning, agile work has claimed to be a radically different approach which allows organisations to react flexibly to changing environmental demands whilst also offering a ‘people' centered approach to management. While the literature often examines agile instruments from a business perspective, this edited collection advances the discussion of the efficacy of agile working,  by applying a more critical social science perspective.The chapters scrutinize whether agility is just a discursive imperative, or whether it is in fact a genuine organizational and institutional strategy that is meant to better deal with complexity and volatility.  The answers to these questions can vary at different levels, and the editors therefore examine agility at the level of teams, organizations and societies. By assembling different perspectives on the sustainability and virtue of agile instruments, and by bringing together international scholars from a variety of disciplines, the project stimulates a comparative discussion.  Review From the Back Cover In an ever-changing working environment, customer and workplace demands have brought new challenges to how we organize and manage work. Increasingly, this is addressed by the idea of 'agility.' From its beginning, agile work has claimed to be a radically different approach which allows organisations to react flexibly to changing environmental demands whilst also offering a ‘people' centered approach to management. While the literature often examines agile instruments from a business perspective, this edited collection advances the discussion of the efficacy of agile working,  by applying a more critical social science perspective.The chapters scrutinize whether agility is just a discursive imperative, or an organizational and institutional reaction to better deal with complexity and volatility.  The answers to these questions can vary at different levels, and the editors therefore examine agility at the level of teams, organizations and societies. By assembling different perspectives on the sustainability and virtue of agile instruments, and bringing together international scholars and different disciplines, which bring in different - sometimes contrary and more or less controversial views - on agile work, the project stimulates a comparative discussion.  Sabine Pfeiffer holds the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany. Manuel Nicklich works at the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Stefan Sauer works at the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany. About the Author Sabine Pfeiffer holds the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany. Manuel Nicklich works at the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Stefan Sauer works at the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany.