Systemic Agility: A Gauge to Measure Companies’ Adaptation to Their Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous Environment 

Abstract: In an always more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous environment, companies must adapt to keep their context in check. The purpose of this paper is to share and discuss the Systemic Agility model, that explores the adaptation of an organization to its context. The model is rooted in the existing literatures and uses quantitative methods to investigate on organizations’ adaptation. Inner organization’s observations are used to position its culture in a continuum bounded by modern and postmodern perspectives. Outer observations are used to quantify the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) characteristics of the environment. The association of all the observations reveals the fit level of an organization to its context; the unfit consequences may be associated with tensions and stress that may impede efficacy. The model and the questionnaire appear consistent under the lenses of the gathered observations analyzed with the Confirmatory Factor Analysis. This suggests that the Systemic Agility may be used to further explore the adaptation of an organization to its context, the creation of wellbeing and the reductions of inner tensions.

Key words: VUCA, adaptation, quantitative methods, confirmatory factor analysis, organizational culture, agile

JEL code: Z190