Organizational Agility in Crisis Management: A Study of Business Continuity During Global Pandemics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64137/XXXXXXXX/IJEBMR-V1I1P103Keywords:
Organisational agility, Crisis management, Business continuity, Global pandemics, Strategic resilience, Agile leadership, Digital transformation, Adaptive risk management, Stakeholder engagement, Supply chain resilienceAbstract
The recent unprecedented disruptions to business and regular daily activities due to global pandemics (especially COVID-19) have brought the question of organizational agility to the forefront of many crisis management and business continuity discussions. The paper discusses the strategies of agile organizations, leadership, and processes that enable companies to tackle the complexities and uncertainties that are presented by such crises. The paper is based on recent empirical findings, as well as cross-sectoral case studies, and discusses the shift from traditional, reactive continuity planning to proactive resilience approaches. Among the major enablers observed are digital transformation, agile leadership, decentralized decision-making, and adaptive risk management, which help an organization to react quickly and efficiently to the changing threats. The results indicate that those organizations that had adopted agility as part of their organizational culture, where flexibility, innovation and stakeholder engagement were prioritized were in a better position to continue operating, safeguarding the health of their workforce, and re-model their businesses when the pandemic struck. The paper develops a systematic model of combining technological innovation, scenario-based planning, and collaborative governance as the foundations of strategic resilience. Finally, the study notes that organizational agility is no longer considered a tactical advantage, but a premise supporting the maintenance of business continuity and long-term resilience in an unstable, uncertain world. These lessons provide practical recommendations to business leaders and policymakers to create stronger/more flexible organizations with a better chance to prosper in the event of future systemic shocks
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