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The Agile Imperative

Teams, Organizations and Society under Reconstruction?

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Combines researchers from different theoretical backgrounds with an empirical view of the most diverse phenomena of agility in different institutional settings
  • Brings established researchers into dialogue with the fresh, critical view of early career scholars
  • Goes beyond summarising discourses or management fads and look at actual organisational change and changes in work

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work (DVW)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
  2. Agility on the Team Level

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17
    2. Antecedents and Consequences of Agility—On the Ongoing Invocation of Self-Organization

      • Manuel Nicklich, Stefan Sauer, Sabine Pfeiffer
      Pages 19-38
    3. Agile Software Development: Practices, Self-Organization, and Satisfaction

      • Robert Biddle, Martin Kropp, Andreas Meier, Craig Anslow
      Pages 39-54
  3. Agility on the Societal Level

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173
    2. Travelling Management Ideas: Agility in Japan

      • Takahiro Endo, Masatoshi Fujiwara, Yuki Tsuboyama
      Pages 175-201
    3. Agility of Affect in the Quantified Workplace

      • Phoebe V. Moore
      Pages 225-249
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 251-256

About this book

In an ever-changing working environment, customer and workplace demands have brought new challenges to how we organize and manage work. Increasingly, this is addressed by the idea of 'agility.' From its beginning, agile work has claimed to be a radically different approach which allows organisations to react flexibly to changing environmental demands whilst also offering a ‘people' centered approach to management.

While the literature often examines agile instruments from a business perspective, this edited collection advances the discussion of the efficacy of agile working,  by applying a more critical social science perspective.The chapters scrutinize whether agility is just a discursive imperative, or whether it is in fact a genuine organizational and institutional strategy that is meant to better deal with complexity and volatility. 



The answers to these questions can vary at different levels, and the editors therefore examine agility at the level of teams, organizations and societies. By assembling different perspectives on the sustainability and virtue of agile instruments, and by bringing together international scholars from a variety of disciplines, the project stimulates a comparative discussion. 

Editors and Affiliations

  • Nuremberg Campus of Technology (NCT), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany

    Sabine Pfeiffer, Manuel Nicklich, Stefan Sauer

About the editors

Sabine Pfeiffer holds the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany.

Manuel Nicklich works at the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.


Stefan Sauer works at the Chair of Sociology, Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen- Nürnberg, Germany.



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Agile Imperative

  • Book Subtitle: Teams, Organizations and Society under Reconstruction?

  • Editors: Sabine Pfeiffer, Manuel Nicklich, Stefan Sauer

  • Series Title: Dynamics of Virtual Work

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73994-2

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-73993-5Published: 31 July 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-73996-6Published: 18 August 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-73994-2Published: 30 July 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2947-9290

  • Series E-ISSN: 2947-9304

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 256

  • Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Sociology of Work, Social Sciences, general, Management

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access