How to know where to go, without knowing where you are heading: How is a Company Agile?

Abstract

A vision, strategies and goals are common tools to determine endeavours and paths for the future of an organization. However within the field of organizational improvisation there is a lack of literature investigating how companies continuously improvise on an overarching and strategic level. Two common themes in the literature are the notions that; first, organizational improvisation is a deviation from a predetermined plan or script; second, improvisation is a necessity to be used in shortage of time to plan or design. This article is based on an ethnographical case study conducted at a mid-sized company that do not use a vision, strategy nor plan, hence there is no plan to deviate from, however it is suggested that the company continuously improvise to develop intentionally. Further, it is argued that organizational improvisation is to be found on two levels in the company; strategic and individual level. The organizational improvisation on individual level enables the strategic improvisation and the interaction between the levels is essential. The authors conclude that the company is guided by intuition and that this form of organizational improvisation enables flexibility and agility.