Roles of Middle Managers in Agile Project Governance

C., Uwadi, Maduka; Gregory, Peggy; Allison, Ian; Sharp, Helen

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-08169-9_5

Cited by 2 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The literature informs us that the role of middle managers is unclear when agile methods are implemented (Dikert et al, 2016). Although the role of middle managers is unclear and described as one of the most challenging in implementing Agile, this area remains under-researched (Barroca et al, 2019;Dikert et al, 2016;Uwadi et al, 2022). Undoubtedly, Agile transformations require re-organisations that require managerial attention (Pries-Heje & Krohn, 2017), such that middle managers take on a pivotal role in the implementation processes and the (re-) interpretation of their new role in an agile setup.…”

Section: Middle Managers' Pivotal Role In Agile Transformationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Depending on project needs, middle managers switch roles and can take on overlapping tasks, regardless of job title and position (Uwadi et al, 2022). Empirical studies find several issues relating to how middle managers translate and enact their new roles, e.g.…”

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical studies find several issues relating to how middle managers translate and enact their new roles, e.g. micromanagement of development teams and not respecting the development teams' visions and decisions (Kalenda et al, 2018), connecting strategic and technicaloperational elements (Hermkens et al, 2020), acting in boundary-spanning positions (Uwadi et al, 2022). This micro-managing dilemma relates to the findings of Dikert et al (2016), who identified a tendency of middle managers towards retaining their 'command and control' functions (p.98).…”

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Agile teams must follow the new agile processes even while management keeps enforcing compliance with previous reporting requirements. Control can also be exercised by taking on a gatekeeper position (Uwadi et al, 2022). This entails control of access regarding the content and the people in the agile processes.…”

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The middle managers have been seen to take on integrative roles as strategists and coordinators. Their work supports organisational connections by participating in both strategic and technical-operational stakeholder conversations (Hermkens et al, 2020;Uwadi et al, 2022). Alternatively, they can act as links between top management and the developers.…”

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Agile Imperative: A Qualitative Study of a Translation Process in the Danish Tax Administration

Fugl-Meyer

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Agile methods, long popular in software development in the private sector, have also gained momentum in public organisations. Agile methods follow the digital transformation agenda of prioritising data and automation by promoting idealised views of what these methods will enable organisations to accomplish in terms of efficiency, flexibility and simplicity. This dissertation investigates how what I call the Agile Imperative is imported and then translated into the Danish Tax Administration, where it challenges existing practices of a conventional bureaucratic organisation. This research project builds on an extensive ethnographic data set following a change programme – the Agile transformation – throughout the design phase and the first months of implementation. The dataset consists of 38 interviews, close to 250 hours of meeting observations and more than one hundred archival documents (reports, files, digital presentations, etc.), which are the foundation for the analysis and contributions of this thesis. This is a micro-level study of how one organisational unit implements agile methods. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, part of this study, and the organisation’s work implementing agile methods, has been virtual, which means that the material consists of data collected both on- and offline. Theoretically, this thesis takes an institutional perspective on digital transformations by applying Scandinavian Institutionalism – or Translation Theory – as the main analytical framework. This perspective offers a processual understanding of the work that goes into becoming increasingly digital, in this case, through the adoption of the Agile values and agile methods. The translation approach focuses on explaining distinctiveness and variation as organisations cope with and adopt new ideas and how both the organisation and the idea change in this process. The contributions of this thesis are twofold. First, it contributes to translation theory by providing an analytical distinction between programmatic and operational elements, reinforcing our understanding that translation concerns both meaning and practices of ideas and how this yields different tensions. I propose to advance the concept of editing rules by underscoring the distinction between external and internal elements. The translation landscape consists of multiple translators that enact Agile in different spaces. The translators attempt to manage the tensions that occur when Agile is adopted to new working practices in different interdependent spaces. Building on the concept of translation space, I have established a typology to analytically understand translation where I highlight and distinguish between managerial, political, internal and collaborative translation spaces. Second, this study contributes to the literature on digital transformations from an institutional perspective. Empirically, this thesis shows how the introduction of Agile has a transformational impact on a public organisation by importing and promoting new managerial beliefs, undermining the already institutionalised organisational form and shifting the actor constellation and authority relations within the Tax Administration. The Agile Imperative is a driving force of digital transformation in organisations.

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Section: Middle Managers' Pivotal Role In Agile Transformationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretation Of Shifting Roles and Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Agile Imperative: A Qualitative Study of a Translation Process in the Danish Tax Administration

Fugl-Meyer

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Social affordances of agile governance

Mergel

2023

Public Administration Review

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Agile refers to a work management ideology with a set of productivity frameworks that support continuous and iterative progress on work tasks by reviewing one's hypotheses, working in a human‐centric way, and encouraging evidence‐based learning. In practice, public administrations have started to use agile principles and methods to plan projects, work in short sprints, iterate after receiving feedback from stakeholders, and apply a human‐centric approach to arrive at prototyped solutions. To understand the opportunities and challenges public servants perceive when they are asked to apply agile work practices, I conducted focus groups to study the social affordances of agile governance that need to be in place for public servants to adopt an agile mindset and its related practices. As a result of the exposure to agile work practices, public servants are either able to perceive its affordances and are willing to adopt agile, they falsely perceive them or they even remain hidden from them leading to a rejection of agile.

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Roles of Middle Managers in Agile Project Governance

Cited by 2 publications

References 28 publications

The Agile Imperative: A Qualitative Study of a Translation Process in the Danish Tax Administration

The Agile Imperative: A Qualitative Study of a Translation Process in the Danish Tax Administration

Social affordances of agile governance

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