Title: Modelling the factors of agility of humanitarian operations

Authors: M. Suresh; S. Ganesh; Raghu Raman

Addresses: Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India ' Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India ' Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Abstract: The commercial concept of agility, when responding to humanitarian operations, has strong potential for increasing efficiency and effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of agility in the context of humanitarian operations, particularly cart festivals in India. This responds to the increasing pressure on festival organisers and public administrative officials to manage the festival and to control the crowd and other supporting facilities in a particular time window. Agility plays a major role in accommodating the unpredicted changes in cart festivals. Attempts are made to identify the factors which influence the agility of humanitarian operations. In this study, interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach is applied to find the interrelationships among the factors. Finally, it is found that the most influential factors are multi-skilled and flexible people, Informal learning and development, completeness and change of culture.

Keywords: humanitarian operations; agility; change management; event flexibility; interpretive structural modelling; ISM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2019.100356

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2019 Vol.12 No.2, pp.108 - 123

Received: 25 Oct 2017
Accepted: 17 Sep 2018
Published online: 27 Jun 2019 *

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