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Demystifying Agile

Kleppe Brittmark, Håvard LU and Creusen, Sanne LU (2018) BUSN49 20181
Department of Business Administration
Abstract (Swedish)
This paper aims at demystifying the agile way of working and to improve the understanding
of the concept. We do this through a case study of a large bank which initiated a transition to
agile five years ago, a transition which can be categorised as an attempt to shift from being
bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. To reach our aim, we engaged in in-depth interviews,
observations, and document analysis all within the interpretivist tradition to capture the
employees’ sensemaking of their new way of working. In this paper we propose three
alternative meanings of agile, namely ‘agile as an envy generator’, ‘agile as standardisation’,
and ‘agile as managerial boredom’. These stand in stark contrast with the established
understanding of... (More)
This paper aims at demystifying the agile way of working and to improve the understanding
of the concept. We do this through a case study of a large bank which initiated a transition to
agile five years ago, a transition which can be categorised as an attempt to shift from being
bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. To reach our aim, we engaged in in-depth interviews,
observations, and document analysis all within the interpretivist tradition to capture the
employees’ sensemaking of their new way of working. In this paper we propose three
alternative meanings of agile, namely ‘agile as an envy generator’, ‘agile as standardisation’,
and ‘agile as managerial boredom’. These stand in stark contrast with the established
understanding of the concept in much of the literature and the general business discourse as
‘agile as an organisational panacea’, and thus we shed new light on this fashionable way of
working. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Kleppe Brittmark, Håvard LU and Creusen, Sanne LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
The Case of a Fantasy Project?
course
BUSN49 20181
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
agile, agile methodologies, post-bureaucracy, organisational change, management fashion, sensemaking, organisational culture
language
English
id
8948428
date added to LUP
2018-06-19 11:55:09
date last changed
2018-06-19 11:55:09
@misc{8948428,
  abstract     = {{This paper aims at demystifying the agile way of working and to improve the understanding
of the concept. We do this through a case study of a large bank which initiated a transition to
agile five years ago, a transition which can be categorised as an attempt to shift from being
bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy. To reach our aim, we engaged in in-depth interviews,
observations, and document analysis all within the interpretivist tradition to capture the
employees’ sensemaking of their new way of working. In this paper we propose three
alternative meanings of agile, namely ‘agile as an envy generator’, ‘agile as standardisation’,
and ‘agile as managerial boredom’. These stand in stark contrast with the established
understanding of the concept in much of the literature and the general business discourse as
‘agile as an organisational panacea’, and thus we shed new light on this fashionable way of
working.}},
  author       = {{Kleppe Brittmark, Håvard and Creusen, Sanne}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Demystifying Agile}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}