Mindset and bureaucracy challenges. Does Agile work in Germany?
Agile increases creativity and innovation
The development of new products requires the generation of one or more novel and useful ideas, suitable for implementation in practice[1]. Many studies and researches have been conducted measuring teams’ results and led to that agile methodologies played a major role in enhancing creativity.
Indicators to measure creativity showed (1) that agile results are related to the creative outcome and its quality including novelty and usefulness and (2) those related to the creative team itself by considering indicators such as individual and group satisfaction, development of cognitive skills, and group interaction[2].
Development of entrepreneurial and pro‐innovative attitudes
Additionally, the role of managing staff in organizations is essential to make the proper use of available social capital and to develop entrepreneurial and pro‐innovative attitudes among their subordinates[3], which contributes to the highest outcome of an organization, and to the overall economic development as well as to its culture. Since the 1970s, due to the rapid development of high technology, especially in the fields of communications and computer, the pattern of global economic growth has changed fundamentally. Therefore, knowledge became –one of- the most important alternative investments for money and physical funds (Lee, 2012)[4].
Likewise, sharing of knowledge is essential across any organization and agile methodologies concentrate on team level collaboration, and some practices for inter-team knowledge sharing[5] and cross-functionality, which have also proved to be efficient and effective.
In addition to that, Wu (2008) argues that knowledge is becoming the only resource capable of offering competitive advantage[6]. The knowledge exchange is highly important not only within one team of one culture but also within cross-cultural teams, which requires flexibility and adaptation mindset. So process flexibility, is another important characteristic of agile development, and people and their collaborations should be privileged to flexible processes[7].
Agile transformation in Germany requires changes in the mindset
lexibility, cross-cultural collaboration, and adaptation require changes in the mindset before changing the methodologies, in which according to Freud, ego could be one of the major problems of adaptation[8].
In German companies, there are countless rules, regulations, procedures and processes[9]. The too much hierarchy within the German organizations makes it difficult to be flexible and to adapt to the ongoing challenges within a project, an organization, and would even slow down the responsiveness to market changes.
Another negative aspect of the German obsession with organization down to the smallest detail is that once a goal or a structure has been planned, it followed through, even though it may not suit changing conditions[10]. The inflexibility of the mindset results in an inflexible and unresponsive system. That’s leaving no-space for creativity and innovation and might even result in a less-competitive market which could become expensive to adapt[11] and thus leaves Germany behind.
Sources:
[1] Broderick Crawford and Claudio León de la Barra, ‘Enhancing Creativity in Agile Software Teams’ (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007), pp. 161–62 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73101-6_24>.
[2] Broderick Crawford and others, ‘Creativity in Agile Software Development Methods’ (Springer, Cham, 2015), pp. 131–35 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21383-5_22>.
[3] Katarzyna Ragin-Skorecka, ‘Agile Enterprise: A Human Factors Perspective’, Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, 26.1 (2016), 5–15 <https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20610>.
[4] Jalal Rezaeenour and Akbar Mohammad Lou, ‘The Impact of Knowledge Management Processes on Agile’ <http://ajeam-ragee.com> [accessed 19 January 2019].
[5] Kati Kuusinen and others, ‘Knowledge Sharing in a Large Agile Organisation: A Survey Study’ (Springer, Cham, 2017), pp. 135–50 <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57633-6_9>.
[6] Rezaeenour and Lou.
[7] Nancy A Bonner and others, ‘An Empirical Investigation of the Perceived Benefits of Agile Methodologies Using an Innovation-Theoretical Model’, Journal of Database Management, 27 <https://doi.org/10.4018/JDM.2016070103>.
[8] Heinz Hartmann, Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation. (Madison: International Universities Press, Inc, 1958) <https://doi.org/10.1037/13180-000>.
[9] Sylvia Schroll-Machl, ‘Understanding German Business Culture – Expat Guide to Germany | Expatica’, 2018 <https://www.expatica.com/de/employment/employment-basics/understanding-german-business-culture-100983/> [accessed 19 January 2019].
[10] Sylvia Schroll-Machl, Doing Business with Germans : Their Perception, Our Perception., 2013.
[11] David John. Hickson, Management in Western Europe : Society, Culture and Organization in Twelve Nations (Walter de Gruyter, 1993) <https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9KfhDAAAQBAJ&rdid=book-9KfhDAAAQBAJ&rdot=1&source=gbs_vpt_read&pcampaignid=books_booksearch_viewport> [accessed 19 January 2019].
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