Establishing an Agile Mindset and Culture for Workforce Preparedness: A Baseline Study
Gerald C. Gannod, Willam F. Eberle, Douglas A. Talbert, Robert A.
Cooke, Kathy Hagler, Kathy Opp, & Jasmin Baniya (2018)
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ARTICLE SUMMARY
Establishing an Agile Mindset and Culture for Workforce Preparedness: A Baseline Study
Gerald C. Gannod, Willam F. Eberle, Douglas A. Talbert, Robert A. Cooke, Kathy Hagler, Kathy Opp, & Jasmin Baniya (2018)
INSTRUMENTS USED: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE INVENTORY® (OCI®), ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE INVENTORY® – IDEAL(OCI®)
The Study:
Agile Development methods were originally designed to help software development teams more effectively adapt to complexity and uncertainty as they try to move toward a desired future. The values and principles specified by the Agile Manifesto for Software Development emphasize teamwork, communication, iterative reflection, and adaptation. Since its creation, Agile has been used by teams in various industries. This research investigates the type of culture that would be ideal to support an Agile mindset and demonstrates how one organization used it to provide a
baseline for change.
Research
Experts in Agile were asked to complete the Organizational Culture Inventory® – Ideal based on Agile principles. In addition, the faculty, staff, and students of a university computer science department at Tennessee Tech completed the Organizational Culture Inventory® by describing the department’s current operating culture.
Findings
According to subject matter experts, the ideal culture to support Agile is one that is strongly Constructive—particularly Achievement, Self Actualising and Humanistic-Encouraging (all above the 90th percentile)—and moderately Oppositional (slightly below the 50th percentile). In contrast, the department’s current culture was described by students as Aggressive/Defensive, while faculty and staff indicated that Passive/ Defensive norms were emphasized. Additional differences were found for specific student cohorts (e.g., female freshman versus female junior/senior).
Implications:
Agile methods are best supported by a strong Constructive culture. The OCI provides the means by which organisations can:
a) determine whether their current culture aligns with a Constructive Ideal;
b) identify subcultures; and
c) provide a baseline for guiding and evaluating strategic efforts to transition toward a culture that better supports and encourages an Agile mindset.
Summary based on: Gannod, G., Eberle, W., Talbert, D., Cooke, R. A., Hagler, K., Opp, K. & Baniya, J. (2018, October 3-6). Establishing an Agile Mindset and Culture for Workforce Preparedness: A Baseline Study. 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), San Jose, CA, USA. 10.1109/FIE.2018.8658712.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8658712.