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Publication type:	Master thesis
Title:	Strategic agility facilitation
Authors:	Lebedeva, Diana
Advisors / Reviewers:	Pichel, Kerstin Kruschitz, Bernhard
DOI:	10.21256/zhaw-24680
Extent:	65
Issue Date:	2021
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Winterthur
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	658.406: Innovation management, change management
Abstract:	As the business environment becomes more and more unstable, it has become clear that only those firms that manage to be flexible and adapt quickly to changes can remain competitive. Business leaders have begun to look for professional facilitators who understand how to develop strategies in an agile manner. Thus, today's strategy facilitators are expected to have the appropriate characteristics to help businesses achieve strategic agility. The main goal of this research was to help modern strategy facilitators be skilled enough to assist their clients with keeping up with the demands of the dynamic business environment. This thesis determined whether the existing characteristics required to be a strategy facilitator were sufficient enough to support strategic agility or whether it was expected to have additional capabilities. The author decided to conduct qualitative research based on secondary and primary data to examine her assumptions and answer the research questions. The secondary data was collected from scholarly articles and books written by researchers and strategy practitioners and was further analyzed through coding methods. The primary data was collected from the personal experience of the strategy facilitation practitioner in the form of a series of semi-structured interviews and was also analyzed through coding methods. Initially, the author had an assumption that facilitation characteristics had to be based on the leadership traits of strategic decision-makers. It was suggested that by enabling leaders to acquire traits needed for strategic agility, the facilitator would indirectly lead a company to agile strategy-making. However, the author later recognized that leadership traits did not play a significant role in determining the characteristics of a facilitator. Nevertheless, through the series of mini-workshops organized with the expert, the author still managed to identify that 14 characteristics could be carried over from the strategic planning setting without changes and that there were five new (emerging) characteristics critical to conducting exclusively strategic agility workshops. This article focused on strategic flexibility as a process, while some scholars perceive it more as the content of the strategy. In addition, the author was not focused on a specific industry, and the individual characteristics of teams participating in workshops with the facilitator were not taken into account. Nevertheless, the results of the thesis still provide valuable information for practitioners and scholars. They reveal the minimum requirements for strategic agility facilitation and serve as a starting point for further, more detailed research. Facilitators of strategic agility are encouraged to use these results as a basis for self-reflection and see what can be improved in their strategizing methods.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/24680
License (according to publishing contract):	CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: Attribution - Non commercial - No derivatives 4.0 International
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Appears in collections:	MSc International Business

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