Occuper le rôle de gestionnaire mène inévitablement à être confronté à de nombreuses contradictions et tensions. Cela est d’autant plus vrai lorsque la gestion du personnel occupe une grande place dans le quotidien du gestionnaire. Ce dernier se voit alors attendu de traiter ses employés de manière uniforme tout en considérant les besoins individuels de chacun et en faisant des exceptions. Également, le gestionnaire se doit de maintenir le contrôle en appliquant les règles et procédures organisationnelles tout en permettant un certain degré de flexibilité et d’autonomie à ses employés. Bref, il semblerait qu’un facteur crucial permettant à un gestionnaire d’exceller dans son rôle est sa capacité à répondre aux demandes contradictoires et paradoxales de son environnement, et ce, d’autant plus dans un contexte marqué par le changement. En d’autres mots, il lui faut faire preuve de flexibilité managériale ; un concept ayant gagné de plus en plus en popularité depuis les 30 dernières années dans la littérature scientifique. Bien que les chercheurs et praticiens s’entendent pour dire que la flexibilité comportementale des gestionnaires est tout à fait nécessaire et pertinente dans le contexte organisationnel volatile et changeant d’aujourd’hui, il ne semble toutefois pas y avoir de consensus quant au terme et aux mesures à utiliser pour définir et capturer ce phénomène. Également, le mécanisme par lequel la flexibilité managériale peut influencer les employés n’a été que très peu étudié empiriquement jusqu’ici. Cette thèse vise à mieux comprendre ce qu’est la flexibilité managériale, comment la mesurer en plus de faire le point sur comment elle a été étudiée jusqu’ici. De plus, elle a pour objectif de valider l’impact de la flexibilité managériale sur les employés en plus de mieux comprendre à travers quels mécanismes ce lien opère en contexte de crise. Le premier article de la thèse consiste en une revue systématique de la littérature sur le sujet de la flexibilité managériale. Cette recension de la littérature s’appuie sur 30 ans de recherche et a permis de répertorier 68 articles sur le sujet. S’appuyant sur l’approche des valeurs concurrentes, l’article permet de mettre en évidence trois principales conceptualisations de la flexibilité managériale, soit la complexité comportementale, le leadership versatile et le leadership paradoxal. Aussi, une revue des mesures de la flexibilité managériale est présentée et des recommandations quant à l’utilisation de ces échelles sont offertes. Enfin, un modèle intégrant l’ensemble des recherches empiriques sur le sujet est également suggéré. Le deuxième article de la thèse s’affaire à tester un modèle de médiation-modérée où la relation entre la flexibilité managériale perçue et la performance de rôle des employés est mise à l’épreuve. L’agilité des employés est proposée comme variable médiatrice tandis que le degré d’épanouissement au travail des employés est suggéré comme variable modératrice du lien entre la flexibilité managériale perçue et l’agilité des employés. Un échantillon de 366 employés a été recruté en ligne lors de la crise sanitaire de la COVID-19 afin de contextualiser les résultats dans un environnement marqué par le changement. Les résultats indiquent qu’en temps de crise, la flexibilité managériale perçue mène à une plus grande performance de rôle de la part des employés et l’agilité de ces derniers expliquerait en partie cette relation. Toutefois, bien que l’épanouissement au travail des employés modère la relation entre la flexibilité managériale perçue et l’agilité des employés, cette variable ne semble pas avoir un impact significatif sur l’ensemble du modèle suggéré. / Occupying the role of manager inevitably leads to being confronted with many contradictions and tensions. This is particularly the case when people management takes a large place in the daily life of managers. They are then expected to treat their employees the same way while considering each of their individual needs and making exceptions accordingly. Also, managers must maintain control by applying organizational rules and procedures while allowing a certain degree of flexibility and autonomy to their employees. In short, a crucial factor enabling managers to excel in their role is the ability to respond to the contradictory and paradoxical demands of their environment, even more so in a context marked by change. In other words, managers must exhibit behavioral flexibility; a concept that has gained increasing popularity over the past 30 years in the scientific literature. Although researchers and practitioners agree that managerial behavioral flexibility is necessary and relevant in today's volatile and changing organizational context, there does not seem to be a consensus on the specific concept and measurement to be used in order to define and capture this phenomenon. Also, the mechanism by which managerial flexibility can influence employees has been little studied empirically so far. This thesis aims to better understand what managerial flexibility is, how to measure it in addition to reviewing how it has been studied so far. In addition, it aims to validate the impact of managerial flexibility on employees while providing better understanding of which mechanisms this link operates through in a crisis context. The first article of the thesis consists of a systematic review of the literature about managerial flexibility. This literature review is based on 30 years of research and has identified 68 articles on the subject. Based on the competing values and paradox approach, the article highlights three main conceptualizations of managerial flexibility, namely behavioral complexity, leadership versatility and paradoxical leadership. Also, a review of the measures of managerial flexibility is presented and recommendations on the use of these scales are offered. Finally, a model integrating all the empirical research on managerial flexibility is presented. The second article of the thesis consists of testing a mediated-moderation model where the relationship between perceived managerial flexibility and employee role performance is tested. Employee agility is proposed as a mediating variable while the degree of employee’s thriving at work is suggested as a moderating variable of the link between perceived managerial flexibility and employee agility. A sample of 366 employees was recruited online and the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to contextualize the results in an environment marked by change. The results indicate that in times of crisis, perceived managerial flexibility leads to greater role performance on the part of employees and that employee’s agility would partly explain this relationship. However, although employee’s thriving at work moderates the relationship between perceived managerial flexibility and employee’s agility, this variable does not appear to have a significant impact on the overall suggested model.

Problem: The interest for sustainable business models is continuously increasing. In recent years closed-loop supply chain management and reverse logistics have gained ground in literature and in practice. One way of giving a product a new life is through charity shops. Charity organizations constantly struggle to stay efficient and reach their social commitment, often in an environment characterized by high uncertainty and with scarce resources. Literature has identified supply chain agility as one of the main sustainable success factors for organizations, especially when acting in an uncertain environment. However, previous studies have mainly focused on large enterprises and have largely neglected the context of charity shop logistics. Purpose: The purpose of this study is bring further understanding of logistic capabilities for supply chain agility in the context of charity shop logistics. Method: The study is conducted as a case study in a charity organization. The data gathering method is primarily qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, however some data was obtained from the ERP-system and from observations. The approach was mainly exploratory, and data analyzed from the interpretivistic paradigm. Data was triangulated and analyzed in relation to literature. Conclusion: Charity shop logistics faces a special context with high uncertainty from both supply and demand side. The study in contrast with previous studies indicated greater importance from integrated logistics capabilities for supply chain agility. This might be due to the special context the organization operates in where it is crucial to satisfy the need of the suppliers (donors) and the customers, while matching donations with sales. / Problem: Intresset för hållbara affärsmodeller växer ständigt. Under de senaste åren har slutna försörjningskedjor (closed-loop supply chains) och omvändlogistik (reverse logistic) vunnit mark i litteratur och i praktiken. Ett sätt att ge en produkt ett nytt liv är genom välgörenhetsbutiker. Välgörenhetsorganisationer kämpar ständigt med att vara effektiva för att kunna nå deras sociala åtagande, ofta i en miljö som karakteriseras av hög osäkerhet och med begränsade resurser. Litteratur har identifierat agila försörjningskedjor som en av de huvudsakliga långsiktiga framgångsfaktorerna för organisationer, särskilt när de verkar i en osäker miljö. Tidigare studier har dock fokuserat på större företag och har i stor utsträckning bortsett från kontexten av välgörenhetsorganisationer.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att ge ökad förståelse om de logistikförmågor som krävs för att öka den agila förmågan i försörjningskedja, detta i kontexten av välgörenhetsbutiker. Metod: Studien är utförd som en fallstudie i en välgörenhetsorganisation. Framförallt kvalitativa data från semi-strukturerade intervjuer insamlades, dock analyserades även data från affärssystem och från observationer. Tillvägagångssättet var främst explorativt, och resultat tolkades från en interpretivistisk synvinkel. Insamlat resultat traingulerades och analyserades i relation till litteraturen.   Slutsats: Välgörenhetsbutiker möter en speciell kontext med både hög osäkerhet från leverantörs- och försäljningssidan. Till skillnad från tidigare studier visar denna studie större betydelse av integrerande logistikförmågor för att uppnå en agilare förörningskedjan. Detta kan bero på den speciella kontexten som organisationen verkar i där stor vikt läggs på att tillgodose både donatorernas (leverantörernas) och kundernas behov, samtidigt som donationer ska matchas med försäljning.

Supply chain agility has been receiving a lot of attention in recent literature as a way for organizations to become more responsive to change and improve customer service levels. However, agility is typically dealt with qualitatively, and organizations are usually unsure of the steps to take to improve their agility and the customer service level to target. This research studies supply chain agility based on a case study of Intel Corporation, a large semiconductor manufacturer. Here, agility is defined as the ability to satisfy customer demands by reacting effectively to changes in market stimuli. Reacting effectively does not mean reacting to every change in supply or demand. Doing so means increasing supply chain variability unnecessarily, which is amplified by the bullwhip effect. The essence of supply chain agility is determining the degree to which variability should be managed through artificial means such as safety stock, and appropriate triggers for changing production levels and inventory targets. The purpose of this research is to examine factors that influence supply chain agility and identify a cost-effective plan for achieving it. The first phase addresses the problem of identifying target inventory and customer service levels based on regression analysis of historical data and financial analysis of inventory holding costs and stock-out costs. The impact of three factors (forecast error, order lead-time, and demand variability) on the relationship between inventory and customer service level is also examined. The second phase of the research evaluates strategies for production and inventory control with the goal of finding the appropriate trade-off between minimizing cost (of holding inventory and stock-outs) and minimizing variability. Control policies based on the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) control chart with control limits on demand forecasts are proposed to detect when tighter control of processes is necessary. A Monte Carlo supply chain simulation is used to evaluate the performance of these policies under various levels of forecast error and demand variability. Results indicate that several control chart-based policies outperform Intel's current planning policy in terms of cost without significantly increasing variability. The selection of the appropriate policy must be based on the decision-makers' desire to minimize cost compared to the desire to minimize variability, as each policy results in a trade-off between these two objectives.

Introduction: Traditional organizational routines for the innovation process, like the Stage-Gate Model, are often characterized by rigid and inflexible activities, limiting firms' ability to identify, develop, and commercialize software and digital/connected products and services. Examples of inflexible activities include predefined project milestones, linear progression through development stages, and a lack of iterative feedback loops. This rigidity can lead to prolonged development timelines, increased costs, reduced competitiveness, and the risk of losing market share. Specifically, the rigidity inherent in traditional innovation processes hampers the ability to adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape, where swift recognition of opportunities, flexible development strategies, and repeated enhancements are key to achieving success. The literature has suggested organizational agility as a potential approach to address the consequences of rigidity. The medical device-development healthcare industry has unique characteristics. It faces challenges that increase the lead time from idea to market in innovation processes, reducing the number of innovations that are developed. Therefore, for medical device development, healthcare firms may need to understand how their innovation process routines align with organizational agility to address the unique features of their industry. Purpose: This thesis aims to understand the current organizational routines of a medical device-developing healthcare firm's innovation process and how these routines align with operational, customer, and partnering agility. Method: A single case study with 12 semi-structured interviews was conducted at a leading European medical device-developing healthcare firm, hereafter referred to as MedTech X. Findings: MedTech X's innovation process routines align with organizational agility through its customer-centric approach, adaption or modification of its extended network to access diverse knowledge, assets, or competencies, practical and iterative operations, and adaptable informal routines. However, as MedTech X further ventures into the realm of software and digital/connected solutions, there is a failure to realize the full potential of real-time customer data. Moreover, there is a recognized need to improve its partnering agility. Also, over-reliance on external resources for sensing may limit the firm's operational agility. Conclusion: Despite certain routines aligning with agility, inconsistency, and overreliance on external resources for sensing pose challenges. Therefore, reassessment and redesign of current innovation routines are advised to balance stability and flexibility. Formalizing innovation processes may be critical for MedTech X to handle unexpected changes, and informal routines play a significant role in this process, suggesting a future research direction.

Limited literature examines the impact of the displacement of boundary-spanning employees artificial intelligence (AI). Scholars and practitioners appear focused on tangible benefits of AI adoption, and do not seem concerned by any less tangible and possibly untoward implications of worker (particularly boundary-spanning worker) displacement. My dissertation addresses this gap in the literature. In Essay 1, a qualitative study is performed to anchor the research on the appropriate ethnographic setting, the firms where this displacement phenomenon is taking place, by utilizing the Straussian grounded theory approach. The outcome of iterative coding of the first order data collected from the interviews and content analysis is a conceptual framework which amongst other findings shows how the unique competences of boundary-spanning employees and those of AI are best suited for different spectra of interorganizational collaborative activities. In Essays 2 and 3, I investigate major themes that emerged from Essay 1 utilizing quantitative and qualitative research methods in both studies. Initially I test research models using structural equation modelling on practitioner survey data, after which I probe further via focused interviews to better understand the survey results. The two papers allow us to put forth several theoretical and managerial contributions, specifically emphasizing the positive essential role of boundary-spanning employees on supply chain agility and innovation, even as AI displaces workers. These contributions provide insight into the optimal balance of human and artificial intelligence for today's highly dynamic marketplace.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of DevOps adoption on organizational agility. The first chapter establishes through literature review and a pilot study, a theoretical definition of DevOps and identifies through survey data, the key DevOps adoption capabilities. The definition and key capabilities identified during the pilot study establishes the foundation through which a subsequent study is performed. The second chapter details an examination of the effects of DevOps adoption capability on organizational agility. Through capability theory, we propose that DevOps adoption capability positively affects organizational agility. We also propose that the capabilities of collaboration/communication, continuous monitoring, measurement and automation positively affect DevOps adoption capability and likewise; the capabilities of responsiveness, competency, flexibility, and quickness affect organizational agility capability. We test our model with survey data collected from 333 respondents and find that our hypotheses are supported and that DevOps adoption capability has a positive effect on organizational agility capability. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems

The implementation of lean manufacturing concepts has shown significant impacts on various industries. Numerous tools and techniques have been developed to tackle specific problems in order to eliminate wastes and carry out lean concepts. With the focus on "how to make a system leaner," little effort has been made on determining "how lean the system is." Lean assessment surveys evaluate the current status of a system qualitatively against predefined lean indicators. Lean metrics are developed to quantify performance of improvement initiatives, but each metric only focuses on one specific area. Value Stream Maps demonstrate the current and future states graphically with the emphasis on time-based performance only. A truly quantitative and synthesized measure for overall leanness has not been established. In some circumstances, being lean may not be the only goal for manufacturers. In order to compete in the rapidly changing marketplace, manufacturing systems should also be agile to respond quickly to uncertain demands. Nevertheless, being extremely agile may increase the cost of regular operations and reduce the leanness of the system. Similarly, being extremely lean may reduce flexibility and lower the agility level. Therefore, a manufacturing system should be agile enough to handle the uncertainty of demands and meanwhile be lean enough to deliver goods with competitive prices and lead time. In order to achieve the appropriate leanness level, a leanness measure is needed to address not only "how lean the system is" but also "how lean it should be." In this research, a methodology is proposed to quantitatively measure leanness level of manufacturing systems using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. The production process of each work piece is defined as a Decision Making Unit (DMU) that transforms inputs of Cost and Time into output Value. Using a Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model, the DEA-Leanness Measure is developed to quantify the leanness level of each DMU by comparing the DMU against the frontier of leanness. A Cost-Time-Value analysis is developed to create virtual DMUs to push the frontier towards ideal leanness so that an effective benchmark can be established. The DEA-Leanness Measure provides a unit-invariant leanness score valued between 0 and 1, which is an indication of "how lean the system is" and also "how much leaner the system can be." With the help of Cost-Time Profiling technique, directions of potential improvement can be identified by comparing the profiles of DMUs with different leanness scores. The leanness measure can also be weighted between Cost, Time and Value variables. The weighted DEA-Leanness Measure provides a way to evaluate the impacts of improvement initiatives with an emphasis on the company's strategic focus. Performing the DEA-Leanness measurement requires detailed cost and time data. A Web-Based Kanban is developed to facilitate automated data collection and real-time performance analysis. In some circumstances where detailed data is not readily available but a Value Stream Maps (VSM) has been constructed, the applications of DEA-Leanness Measure based on existing VSM are explored. Besides pursuing leanness, satisfying a customer's demand pattern requires certain level of agility. Based on the DEA-Leanness Measure, appropriate leanness targets can be identified for manufacturing systems considering sufficient agility level. The Online-Delay and Offline-Delay Targets are determined to represent the minimum acceptable delays considering inevitable waste within and beyond a manufacturing system. Combining the two targets, a Lean-Agile Performance Index can then be derived to evaluate if the system has achieved an appropriate level of leanness with sufficient agility for meeting the customers' demand. Hypothetical cases mimicking real manufacturing systems are developed to verify the proposed methodologies. An Excel-based DEA-Leanness Solver and a Web-Kanban System have been developed to solve the mathematical models and to substantiate potential applications of the leanness measure in real world. Finally, future research directions are suggested to further enhance the results of this research. / Ph. D.

Yes / Purpose: The COVID-19 outbreak has imposed extensive shocks embracing all stages of the food supply chain (FSC). Although the magnitude is still unfolding, the FSC responds with remarkable speed, to mitigate the disruptive consequences and sustain operations. This motivates us to investigate how operationalising supply chain agility (SCA) practices has occurred amid the COVID-19 crisis and expectations for how those practices could transform the supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Design: Following an exploratory case-based design, we examine the various agile responses that three supply chains (meat, fresh vegetables and bread) adopted and elaborate using the dynamic capability (DC) theoretical lens. Findings: First, the findings demonstrate how, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, each affected case pursued various agile responses through sensing and seizing capabilities. Sensing includes identifying and assessing the relevant opportunities and threats associated with the specific supply chain context. Seizing involves acquiring, combining and modifying the tangible and intangible resources at the firm and supply chain levels. Second, supply chain transformation is likely if firms and their supply chain develop the sustaining capability to ensure that the desirable changes outlast the crisis. Originality: This study provides a novel and unique perspective on the role of SCA in crisis—in this case, the pandemic. We synthesise the empirical stories of the agile responses in the FSC and elaborate on the DC framework, to identify theoretical and practical implications. We establish the sustaining capability as the missing DC capability for enabling transformation in the post-COVID-19 era. Practical contribution: This study provides an actionable guide for practitioners to develop agile responses to systemic changes in times of crisis and to sustain favourable changes so as to enable their outlasting the crisis. / Project 777742: EC H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017

“Adapt or die” is the spreading philosophy that shapes how organizations respond to change. Although change has always been inevitable in the business landscape, the pace of change has arguably increased during the 21st century. Simultaneously, there is a projectification happening, where projects are used for organizing work in more and more settings, increasing demands for flexible project managers. This has led to a heightened focus on concepts such as mindfulness and agility among academics and practitioners alike. However, the relationship between the two is sparsely investigated, and primarily set within a software development context. This paper therefore answers the call for more research investigating the two, and more specifically in the context of project management. This study explored the effect of mindfulness on project managers’ ability to be agile and lead agile work through a qualitative research approach, utilizing a case study with interviews. The study took place at a medium sized IT consultancy company in Sweden, where nine respondents were interviewed through semi-structured interviews. Additionally, an agility expert was interviewed to provide professional input on the complex concept of business agility. The data collected was analyzed through coding and thematic analysis techniques based on a previously defined theoretical framework, with five mindfulness principles and a definition of agility in project organizations as the foundation. The results validate the five mindfulness principles as a framework for assessing mindfulness in organizations. The study identified connections between mindfulness, agility, and project management within the case company. By understanding these connections, the study suggests that mindfulness can enhance agility and flexibility in project management, addressing the specific research gap. By incorporating an interdisciplinary approach and reviewing research from various organizational fields, the study provides a holistic perspective on mindfulness and agility in the project management context. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of a shared mindset in achieving successful agility, emphasizing the role of openness to change and organizational learning in agile work environments. Finally, the study suggests several practical implications for managers and organizations. Firstly, it emphasizes the role of mindfulness as an enabler of agility, highlighting the importance of a shared mindset and openness to change within teams. The five mindfulness principles are recommended as a concrete way to implement and assess mindfulness in organizational settings. Additionally, the findings suggest that project managers can play a crucial role in initiating and driving the mindfulness and agility processes within their organizations. The study provides insights into how mindfulness practices can support agile work environments and enhance organizational flexibility.

This thesis investigates the interconnections of the factors that a company essentially should possess to implement agile applications and examines the extent to which agility factors are transferable across diverse sectors. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with industry experts and executive ranks across various sectors, this research aims to identify the key factors that are indispensable to organizational agility to successfully implement agility and assess their applicability in diverse organizational contexts. The findings highlight the universal relevance of agility factors such as leadership and vision, top-management support, customer focus, adaptability, collaboration, innovation, resource management, technology utilization, and training and development.