PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the often overlapping use of the related terms flexibility, agility and responsiveness in the operations management literature to clarify differences between the terms.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the notion of the ladder of abstraction, a conceptual differentiation between the three terms is proposed.FindingsBased on the most common associations of the terms in the literature, the paper proposes a hierarchical interrelationship between the terms in that: flexibility is most commonly associated with the inherent property of systems which allows them to change within pre‐established parameters; agility is predominantly used to describe an approach to organizing that provides for rapid system reconfiguration in the face of unforeseeable changes; and responsiveness commonly refers to a system behavior involving timely purposeful change in the presence of modulating stimuli.Practical implicationsAs managers of manufacturing firms strive to improve the performance of their organizations in a highly competitive environment, the paper provides a useful enhanced understanding of the relative roles that flexibility, agility and responsiveness play in their operations strategies. This in turn will enable them to better focus their competitive strategies and investments.Originality/valueWhile confusion between the meanings of these terms has been noted by others, the paper is believed to be the first to consider the three terms together and thereby propose a differentiation between them.
This paper uses data from 349 employee involvement (EI) team projects to explore the relationships between process type, operational performance, employee involvement, and environmental performance. We investigate the stated goals and outcomes of EI team projects and relationships among these. For repetitive manufacturing processes in particular, we find strong relationships between the operational goals and outcomes of teams and the positive environmental impact outcome. To the extent that environmental performance results from operational systems, this paper suggests that the continuous improvement efforts of operations managers, including EI team projects, can be a key source of environmental improvements. Managers who understand this will take overt steps to leverage their operational improvement systems for environmental gains. From a theory development standpoint, questions are raised regarding the areas of potential synergy between operational and environmental improvement.
This research is a 10-year update on the rankings of perceived relevance and quality of selected Production and Operations Management (POM) journals that was reported by Barman et al. (1991) [Journal of Operations Management 10 (2), 194-212)]. The results show some changes in the perceptions of journals over the past decade. Some journals are perceived to be extremely relevant to POM research, but not particularly of "high" quality. For other journals, the reverse is true -"high" quality is perceived but the published studies are not considered particularly relevant to POM. The Journal of Operations Management remained atop the relevance rankings and retained its position among the top three journals for quality. The study identifies factors that the respondents say influence their perception of journal quality. Finally, the paper finds some evidence that association with the editorial board of a journal affects one's perceptions of the quality and relevance of that journal.
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