A Celebration of Communication: A qualitative case study on the importance of communication in an agile organization

Sammanfattning: In a world colored by change, being agile is considered one of the most important traits for communication professionals in a modern corporate landscape. However, research concludes that the concept of agility stills lacks clarity to the profession and what being agile actually implies to the profession. This study problematizes this and explores the implications of agility and how communication professionals in an agile organization understand these implications. Through a qualitative case study of a communication team in an agile public organization, where empirical material was collected from qualitative interviews combined with analysis of central communication documents from the team and organization, this study contributes to knowledge of how communication professionals of the case organization understand the implications of agility. Results from the case study show that communication professionals understand agility in a large organizational context, however, the concepts still lack clarity concerning how communicative work is conducted explicitly agile. The analysis further shows that organizational sensemaking of what being agile implies in a large organizational context is created through processes of communication and communicative actions stemming from the communication professionals. Finally, communication professionals in the case organization understand themselves as facilitators of agility due to the profession’s close relationship to agility. Through the professional communicative logic, communication professionals conduct dialogue with stakeholders, sensemaking procedures, and ultimately become strategic partners to help facilitate an agile mentality throughout the organization.