ADOPTING AGILE. A different interpretation of the proliferation of agile approaches from the perspective of management fashion theory and institutional theory

Abstract

This study is a critical review of the term agile in order to place it in the literature of strategy theories. A study of people with agile knowledge’s view on an agile approach have been conducted to examine the development of agile as a management fashion. To support the management fashion theory, institutional theory has been used to further understand and explain why agile is seen as a fashion. This explanation is later used to understand the agile approach’s proliferation, which is used to answer the research question: why do organizations choose to adopt an agile approach? The study suggests that the agile approach has been diffused and decontextualized for it to fit into other industries than software development. Within its organizational field, it is being spread through mass media, a common language and interdependencies in complex environments.