In today’s volatile market, retail companies struggle for survival as they have to become more flexible and dynamic. Thus, they change the organization, implementing agile methods. However agile is more than a set of practices and therefore the implementation process needs to be accompanied by organizational development to accomplish successful organizational change. This has been shown to be difficult for retail companies due to their size, defined silos, comfortable long-established ways of doing things and strong bureaucratic hierarchical culture. This thesis studies the implementation of agile in a large-scale retail organization and uses organizational development as a tool for deeper understanding and analysis. The study has been conducted at one of Sweden's leading retail organizations, where the research design contains two phases: one pre-study phase where a deeper understanding of the company and the transformation is achieved resulting in a problem formulation and the second phase where the main study is directed by the problem formulation and leads to an analysis and conclusion. The analysis is based on empirics gathered from three separate teams and is divided into three interconnected change phases, “Preparation”, “Implementation” and “Desired state”. From the analysis in the preparation and implementation phases; strengths and challenges within the organization were identified. Together with a maturity model to evaluate the implemented agile practices and an organizational culture assessment instrument to evaluate people and culture, the strengths and challenges were then used to estimate their current state and compare it to their future desired state. In conclusion, the strengths of the case company were that, when implemented, the observed teams incorporated the agile ceremonies and ways of work successfully. However, there were challenges identified in relation to resistance within management, there was a general lack of support from the sponsors and confusion about the managerial roles. There was also a lack of communication, cooperation and synchronizations between teams. / I dagens flyktiga marknader kämpar företag inom dagligvaruhandeln för att överleva då de måste bli mer flexibla och dynamiska i deras strategi. För att bemöta detta ändrar företagen sin strategi genom implementering av agila metoder. Emellertid handlar att vara agil inte bara om att använda sig av olika verktyg och övningar för att ändra hur man arbetar, utan för att implementeringen av agila metoder ska vara lyckad, måste den följas med av en lyckad organisationsförändring. En sådan agil implementering och organisationsförändring har visats vara komplicerad i just dagligvaruhandeln på grund av organisationernas ofta stora storlek, definierade silos, komfortabla gamla traditioner och starka hierarkiska organisationskultur. Denna uppsats studerar implementationen av agilt i ett storskaligt företag inom dagligvaruhandeln och använder sig av organisationsutveckling som ett verktyg för att nå en djupare förståelse och analys. Analysen är uppdelad i tre olika sammanhängande faser “Förberedelse”, “Implementering”, och “Önskat Tillstånd”. Empirin analysen är baserad på kommer från tre olika separata team, vilka är i olika faser av den agila transformationen. I förberedelse- och implementeringsfaserna identifieras styrkor och utmaningar hos företaget. Dessa används sedan tillsammans med en mognadhetsmodell, för att evaluera de agila tillvägagångssätten samt ett bedömningsinstrument för organisationskultur, för att evaluera personer och kultur, i syfte att sedan utvärdera det nuvarande tillståndet i jämförelse med det önskade. Sammanfattningsvis lyckades de observerade teamen att framgångsrikt implementera de agila metoderna och arbetssätten. Däremot identifierades flera utmaningar i relation till motstånd inom management. Det fanns en generell förvirring kring chefs rollernas betydelse och det saknades stöd från ledningsgruppen. Slutligen identifierades även förbättringsområden inom kommunikation, samarbete och synkronisering mellan olika team.

This study is a systematic, objective investigation of educator empowerment, where the researcher explores the perspective of ABET educators. This study is presented against the backdrop of striking a balance between the conventional curriculum and Curriculum 2005 (OBE) because they exhibit a variety of challenges, anomalies and imbalances which led to the Revised National Curriculum Statements which will be implemented in 2006. It is informed by the fact that educators, if empowered, form an integral and central feature of changes in educational centres, especially in teaching adult learners to be able to assist their school-leaving children so as to improve provincial matric results, for example. The researcher focused on educators of ABET in Limpopo Province as the unit of analysis in this study. Interactive, cooperative, peer teaching, dialogic meditation, group and team teaching, constructivism and human resource development, reflective and multi-level approaches, are discussed with a particular focus on educator empowerment, including in-service training programmes. The researcher regards ”church settings” (her term) as inappropriate for effective teaching as they reduce educators to preachers and learners to congregants. This occurred as a result of the failure to recognise the importance of educator-learner, learner-learner and educator-educator interaction in the past curriculum. The study argues that the approaches mentioned are appropriate for this study. Educator empowerment is a lived-in and continuous process, monitoring and evaluating of in-service training to ensure quality. It was therefore necessary to develop a research design that would make it possible to enable educators to implement the new curriculum. Qualitative research is based on an in-depth inquiry which captures an educator's personal perspectives and experiences. Focus groups and in-depth interviews, which exemplify qualitative methods, were seen to be the best research tools in gathering the data for this study. The respondents, were UNISA ABET certificate students, and also professional educators at formal schools. They showed zeal in improving the educational situation. Their responses led to the model which has been developed in the thesis, culminating in uplifting the teaching profession and handling its multi-level led dynamic in an interactive and cooperative manner and reflecting in their experiences so that purposes of the National Qualifications Framework can be attained. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)

This study is a systematic, objective investigation of educator empowerment, where the researcher explores the perspective of ABET educators. This study is presented against the backdrop of striking a balance between the conventional curriculum and Curriculum 2005 (OBE) because they exhibit a variety of challenges, anomalies and imbalances which led to the Revised National Curriculum Statements which will be implemented in 2006. It is informed by the fact that educators, if empowered, form an integral and central feature of changes in educational centres, especially in teaching adult learners to be able to assist their school-leaving children so as to improve provincial matric results, for example. The researcher focused on educators of ABET in Limpopo Province as the unit of analysis in this study. Interactive, cooperative, peer teaching, dialogic meditation, group and team teaching, constructivism and human resource development, reflective and multi-level approaches, are discussed with a particular focus on educator empowerment, including in-service training programmes. The researcher regards ”church settings” (her term) as inappropriate for effective teaching as they reduce educators to preachers and learners to congregants. This occurred as a result of the failure to recognise the importance of educator-learner, learner-learner and educator-educator interaction in the past curriculum. The study argues that the approaches mentioned are appropriate for this study. Educator empowerment is a lived-in and continuous process, monitoring and evaluating of in-service training to ensure quality. It was therefore necessary to develop a research design that would make it possible to enable educators to implement the new curriculum. Qualitative research is based on an in-depth inquiry which captures an educator's personal perspectives and experiences. Focus groups and in-depth interviews, which exemplify qualitative methods, were seen to be the best research tools in gathering the data for this study. The respondents, were UNISA ABET certificate students, and also professional educators at formal schools. They showed zeal in improving the educational situation. Their responses led to the model which has been developed in the thesis, culminating in uplifting the teaching profession and handling its multi-level led dynamic in an interactive and cooperative manner and reflecting in their experiences so that purposes of the National Qualifications Framework can be attained. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)