Agile project management, new leadership roles and dynamic capabilities : insight from a case study analysis

This paper emphasizes the microfoundations of organizational agility and explores the interplay between new technologies, organizational structure and processes, leadership style and individual competencies. This interplay is analyzed in a case study conducted in an international information technology company with headquarters in Germany during the period from 2017 to 2019. The focus of the analysis is on the implementation process of agile team work. The outcome is that structural changes, as an isolated step of implementing agile teams, are not able to increase agility and can even lead to unintended effects. An agile team structure can enhance organizational agility when it is accompanied by empowering leadership in conjunction with specific competencies for the implementation of new work concepts. In this regard, the paper provides a deeper understanding of organizational agility regarding the dynamic interaction between certain micro variables.