The Effect of Application of Information Technology on Organizational Agility Using the Fuzzy Method (Case Study of the Informatics Services Corporation)

Subject Areas : Business Strategy

Hamidreza Navaie ¹ , Jalal Haghighat Monfared ² , Reza Radfar ³

1 - E-Campus, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Management, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2014-09-01 Accepted : 2014-11-01 Published : 2015-10-01

Keywords: Information Technology, Agility, formulating alternative fuzzy hypotheses, fuzzy deduction,

Abstract :

Agility has an undeniable effect on organization success inthe present changing markets, and information technology (IT) is a majorfacilitating factor in business activities of organizations nowadays,as about more than a half of present organizations capitals is based onIT. Therefore, assessment of the IT application level and organizationalagility, and study of the effect of application of IT on organizationalagility will enable organizations to identify solutions to maximize theirinvestments and utilization of IT in order to achieve agility or improveorganizational agility and gain competitive advantages. According toprevious studies, no codified and well-known method has been presentedto determine the effect of IT on organizational agility. For instance, anorganization may be able to adapt to changes of business environmentusing IT, but may lack agility due to enormous costs it bears. Hence, application of IT brings about agility to an organization where it notonly is effective for keeping up with changes [14], but also is cost effectiveto have a greater share of the market. The present study was aimedto evaluate the effect of application of IT on organizational agility. Tothis end, components and indexes were first identified to measure applicationof IT application and organizational agility levels through deskstudies and using expert opinions. Next, two questionnaires were preparedwhose validity was confirmed by the experts and whose reliabilitywas confirmed by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha. Since the organizationunder study was the Informatics Services Corporation (ISC), a50-member statistical sample was selected from a statistical populationof about 70 members, the questionnaires were distributed among theparticipants, and 41 of them were used finally. The level of applicationof IT to ISC was “tested” and its agility was calculated to be agile usingfuzzy logics. Secondary fuzzy hypotheses were formulated using theobtained levels and the hypotheses were examined through the fuzzyhypothesis test and fuzzy deduction test. The primary and secondaryhypotheses were studied and proved in the next step. Finally, the effectof application of IT on organizational agility of ISC was assessed to behigh.