A review of enterprise agility: Concepts, frameworks, and attributes

Existing knowledge about agile manufacturing (AM) and an agile workforce was reviewed in order to extend the concept of agility to the whole enterprise. The frameworks that describe other elements of the enterprise besides manufacturing, or contain attributes that could be applied to all enterprise structures were also included into the review. The review identified a large number of papers related to the AM. However, there was little empirical research done on the agile workforce and agile organization. This review identified the global characteristics of agility which can be applied to all aspects of enterprise: flexibility, responsiveness, speed, culture of change, integration and low complexity, high quality and customized products, and mobilization of core competencies. The need for further research in order to empirically establish and validate the attributes and indices of the agile workforce and agile enterprise has also been discussed.