Organizational agility has become and will continue to be a requirement for Federal organizations as external environmental factors (e.g., budget fluctuations, changes in public expectations, unforeseen crises) become more complex and unpredictable. This continuous change requires that modern organizations acquire a flexible and responsive approach to managing talent in order to achieve their missions.
Reflective of this new understanding of complexity and rapid change, organizational scholars have begun applying complexity science to better understand how best to manage human resources toward organizational outcomes. Complexity science views organizations as non-linear, open systems where a network of actors cluster toward shared objectives. These clusters are temporary and contingent, aligning and realigning as actors respond to changes in the external and internal environment. The nodes in this network are key drivers of organizational outcomes and reflect informal as well as formal focal points of resources, insights, influence, and activities.
The lens of complexity science provides a new conceptualization of organizations as self-organizing systems. This new understanding of organizations implies an equivalent new role for Human Resources Management. In complex adaptive systems, HR's job is to influence the emergent behaviors of leaders, managers, and employees as they respond to their environment. HR must encourage the behaviors that will achieve organizational goals, while also enabling constant reinvention of the organization as needed to address internal and external environmental changes. HR itself must constantly flex policies and processes to align with emerging organizational needs.
Federal agencies have a long tradition of organizational structures with firm boundaries (established by organizational charts) and strict internal and external areas of formal authority (statutes, regulations, executive orders, policies, interagency working agreements, etc.). Increasingly, however, agencies are recognizing that they, too, exist in a complex adaptive system. Agencies have permeable boundaries that are impacted daily by external factors (i.e., budgets, social media, unexpected crises), which in turn affect how agencies achieve their missions.
Agencies must now build capacity to manage change, while pursuing optimal performance and mission accomplishment. To accomplish this, agencies must be agile and responsive with how they manage their organization and human resources. Managing with agility incorporates the notion of being flexible and open to adopting new business processes, while adapting an organization's mindset and culture to constant change. Agencies must enable leaders, managers, and employees to align toward outcomes, while constantly scanning for projected changes and preparing to adapt to new requirements and expectations.