Implementing Cloud Information Systems for Organizational Agility and Competitive Advantage

In today's competitive business environment, information systems are not a luxury; rather they are vital for survival. A new generation of ISs has been established on cloud capabilities. Moving toward software as a service is not the goal in a business, and if not implemented properly, competitive advantage may even suffer. Managers and change agents should undertake deep study over SaaS implementation before migration. In this chapter, the main elements and features in which CEOs and IT managers should consider in evaluating the SaaS migration option will be provided, and enterprises may be acquainted with the concept, goals, and theoretical foundations of SaaS as a main cloud-based service in the business environment. On the other hand, businesses should undertake some necessary changes in the operating circumstances which are utilization of a proper and modified business models established over a knowledge base strategic movement. This will lead enterprises to achieve the main goals of migrating to SaaS and cloud platforms (i.e., agility, competitive advantage, and innovation).

Knowledge Retention Challenges in Information Systems Development Teams

Information systems development (ISD) is an integral part of organizational agility in today’s competitive business environment. High turnover, agile ways of working, and fluid work environments pose challenges for ISD. This paper explores the erosion of knowledge retention (KR) arising from ISD staff churn in a New Zealand-based financial organization in the aftermath of a major earthquake. In this exploratory study, the authors develop a causal model of KR in the ISD context, which articulates the challenges to and consequences of ineffective KR at the routine and exiting stages of KR. The model identifies four challenges—coordination complexity, insufficient resources for knowledge retention, insufficient attention to knowledge retention, and slow staff replacement and handover processes—that can affect the loss of ISD knowledge when routine and exiting KR fall into disarray. This study also reveals that role stress and reduced ISD agility reinforce the cycle of knowledge loss.

Integrating the Arts for Leadership Education and Development

The arts involve engaging the human imagination and sensory skills to communicate and create experiences, artifacts, and surroundings shared with others. Conventionally, education providers have compartmentalized the arts and sciences as separate and disparate disciplines. Yet, the future of work will continue to demand that organizations and their members remain agile, creative, and innovative in the face of ongoing uncertainty and change. As a result, leadership paradigms and models have been changing from top-down, command and control to relational, participative standards due to the need for collaborative expertise and organizational agility. This chapter will address the skills required for relational leaders and learning organizations, how higher education programs must model the way, and how integrating the arts within other disciplines could answer the call for deeper learning and collaborative engagement in the 21st century.

The Influence of SHRM and Organizational Agility

This chapter reveals the significance of strategic human resource management (SHRM) as well as organizational agility (OA)and their impact on organizational performance that empowers organizations to achieve innovative excellence. As, nowadays organizational effectiveness is viewed as a prerequisite condition for upholding organizational performance, income and employment. Consistently, the essence of OA and importance of SHRM is considered as an eminent approach to meet the global challenges that enabling the effect of change in organizations and shielding employees against the unwanted effects. Thus, authors intention to investigate what makes an organization to be competitive? How the influence of SHRM and OA can really boost the organizational performance? To retort these queries, this chapter represents a conceptual perception of SHRM and OA that discuss the HRM strategies relation to OA. It also highlights the way organizations can respond rapidly and flexibly to cope up with the changing environment without facing business turmoil.

Critical Success Factors for Organizational Agility

Companies are facing important challenges related to markets' internationalization, regulatory restrictions, and fierce competition especially during the COVID-19 context. Environment is thus characterized by rapid and volatile changes. Organizational agility is the key capability allowing firms to adapt continuously by sensing changes in their environment and responding in an efficient and rapid manner. Previous work has addressed organizational agility enablers, including IT ones, allowing the firm to be more agile. In this chapter, the authors first extend their organizational agility enablers list through an in-depth analysis of consulting firms and governmental agencies reports on agility during the COVID-19 context. The final list contains 28 organizational agility enablers belonging to 10 groups. Then, the authors conduct a Q-study in order to identify what factors are critical for a successful journey towards agility and to analyze the results from an IT perspective.

Organizational agility to counter coronavirus implications in emerging Saudi universities

Objective: The study's primary goal was to uncover the reality of organizational agility in emerging universities. It also aimed to determine the statistical variances between the mean scores of the sample used in the axes of the organizational agility questionnaire for these universities. The main variables used are gender, academic position, and years of experience. Methodology: The study utilized the descriptive method. The data collection process entailed handing out questionnaires to a sample of seven hundred and forty-seven faculty members in Jazan, Bishah, Hafar Al-Batin, Shaqraa, and Najran Universities. Results: Emerging universities regularly practice organizational agility in light of the emerging coronavirus with high flexibility at moderate costs. The study's results also indicated mathematically substantial variances at the degree of viability between the male sample's average and the female sample's average in favor of the female sample in the timing and the flexibility of practices. It also indicated statistically significant variances at the degree of significance between the mean scores of the research sample, attributed to the difference in the academic position in the timing, flexibility, and cost of practices. Keywords: Coronavirus, Degree of variability Emerging universities, Organizational agility, Strategy,