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The Evolutionary Trajectory of the Agile Concept Viewed from a Management Fashion Perspective

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  • Dag Øivind Madsen

    (Department of Business, Marketing and Law, School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway, Bredalsveien 14, 3511 Hønefoss, Norway)

Abstract

Agile is one of the most popular contemporary management concepts and buzzwords. This paper provides an in-depth examination of the influence of the Agile concept on the discourse, thinking and practices of organizations worldwide. The paper traces the emergence and evolution of the Agile concept from inception to the present by synthesizing findings from a wide range of academic and practitioner-oriented sources. Overall, the picture that emerges from the analysis is that the Agile concept has grown considerably in popularity and has become one of the most dominant concepts in public management discourse. The popularization of Agile has, to a large extent, been driven by an active supply-side made up of actors such as consultants, coaches, and trainers. Another finding is that the Agile concept has evolved considerably over time, from its initial presentation as a narrow and specialized concept rooted in the software development community to a much broader and general approach applicable across nearly all types of organizations and industries. The broadening of the concept has led to neologisms such as Agile Marketing, Agile Government, and Agile Management. The paper ends with reflections on the current status of Agile and some speculation about the concept’s likely future trajectory.

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  • Dag Øivind Madsen, 2020. "The Evolutionary Trajectory of the Agile Concept Viewed from a Management Fashion Perspective," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:9:y:2020:i:5:p:69-:d:354370
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dag Øivind Madsen, 2014. "How do managers encounter fashionable management concepts? A study of balanced scorecard adopters in Scandinavia," International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(4), pages 249-267.
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    4. Yusuf, Y. Y. & Sarhadi, M. & Gunasekaran, A., 1999. "Agile manufacturing:: The drivers, concepts and attributes," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 33-43, May.
    5. Hyunyoung Choi & Hal Varian, 2012. "Predicting the Present with Google Trends," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(s1), pages 2-9, June.
    6. Jung, Dong-II & Lee, Won-Hee, 2016. "Crossing the management fashion border: The adoption of business process reengineering services by management consultants offering total quality management services in the United States, 1992–2004," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 702-719, September.
    7. Briers, Michael & Chua, Wai Fong, 2001. "The role of actor-networks and boundary objects in management accounting change: a field study of an implementation of activity-based costing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 237-269, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tutar Hasan & Sarkhanov Teymur, 2022. "Tracing Management Fashions in Selected Indices: A Descriptive Statistical Study," Organizacija, Sciendo, vol. 55(3), pages 199-213, August.
    2. Dag Øivind Madsen & Kåre Slåtten, 2022. "The Possibilities and Limitations of Using Google Books Ngram Viewer in Research on Management Fashions," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, November.
    3. Bulent Akkaya & Anna Bagieńska, 2022. "The Role of Agile Women Leadership in Achieving Team Effectiveness through Interpersonal Trust for Business Agility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, March.

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