The Agile Paradigm and Organisation Development in Higher Educational Institutions

Abstract

This article has two objectives. First, is to provoke consideration as to whether a set of constructs known as 'the Agile Paradigm' provides a relevant model for organisation development in Higher Education Institutions as they confront a period of increasingly VUCA (volatile + uncertain + complex + ambiguous) conditions, a changing and threatening competitive environment, a need to become stronger in facilitating personal development and a different landscape of opportunities and threats largely provoked by the onset of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The second objective is to outline the findings of a scoping research study into the range of competences that will be needed by future students of Management to enhance their ability to be agile resilient, efficient and effective-when facing 21st century challenges.