To foster their innovation teams’ adaptability, organizations are increasingly relying on agile teams. While research on the adoption of agile methods and practices has grown tremendously in the past decade, little is currently known about the human side of agile teams and how it contributes toward the emergence of adaptability. While the Agile Manifesto states that individuals and interactions are more important for agile product development than tools and processes, research on how these interactions unfold is still in its infancy. To shed light on the human side of adaptability, 44 semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews were conducted with team members and leaders from various teams at three organizations (i.e., two German and one multinational European firm). The inductive analysis identified empowerment as a focal human factor for adaptability emergence. A model of the continuous agile team innovation process is developed and uncovers the importance of dynamic empowerment states and their temporary equilibria for team adaptability. The underlying findings demonstrate that empowerment is not a static state, but rather emerges through the interactions between various actors. Specifically, the team and its leader engage in both empowerment‐enhancing and empowerment‐reducing activities. These activities are further influenced by the agile team’s immediate context: Two‐fold customer influences, that is, supporting and hindering empowerment interactions, and the organizational environment, that is, undergoing an agile transformation and supportive top management behaviors, play an important role in affecting the empowerment dynamics that result in team adaptability. As such, this study contributes to the innovation and management literatures by revealing the dynamic role of the empowerment and adaptability constructs for agile innovation processes and the importance of various actors and the organizational environment for fostering adaptability. Practical insights are offered to management, teams, and team members on how to create conditions for empowerment dynamics and consequently adaptability to unfold.

中文翻译：

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从授权动态到团队适应性：探索和概念化持续敏捷团队创新过程

为了增强创新团队的适应能力，组织越来越依赖敏捷团队。尽管在过去十年中关于采用敏捷方法和实践的研究已经取得了巨大的发展，但对于敏捷团队的人性及其对适应能力的发展的贡献，目前知之甚少。尽管《敏捷宣言》指出，个人和交互对敏捷产品的开发比工具和过程更为重要，但有关这些交互如何展开的研究仍处于起步阶段。为了揭示适应性的人性方面，对来自三个组织（即两家德国公司和一家跨国欧洲公司）的团队成员和来自各个团队的领导者进行了44次半结构化的深入访谈。归纳分析确定了赋权是适应能力出现的主要人为因素。建立了持续敏捷团队创新过程的模型，该模型揭示了动态授权状态及其对于团队适应性的暂时平衡的重要性。基本发现表明，授权不是静态的，而是通过各个参与者之间的相互作用而出现的。具体来说，团队及其领导者参与增强授权和减少授权的活动。这些活动进一步受到敏捷团队的即时环境的影响：双重客户影响，即支持和阻碍授权交互，以及组织环境，即经历敏捷转变和支持性最高管理行为，在影响授权动态，从而导致团队适应性方面发挥重要作用。因此，本研究通过揭示授权和适应性结构对敏捷创新过程的动态作用以及各种参与者和组织环境对促进适应性的重要性，为创新和管理文献做出了贡献。向管理人员，团队和团队成员提供了实用的见解，涉及如何为赋权动态创造条件，从而为适应发展提供条件。这项研究通过揭示授权和适应性结构在敏捷创新过程中的动态作用以及各种参与者和组织环境对促进适应性的重要性，为创新和管理文献做出了贡献。向管理人员，团队和团队成员提供了实用的见解，涉及如何为赋权动态创造条件，从而为适应发展提供条件。这项研究通过揭示授权和适应性结构在敏捷创新过程中的动态作用以及各种参与者和组织环境对促进适应性的重要性，为创新和管理文献做出了贡献。向管理人员，团队和团队成员提供了实用的见解，涉及如何为赋权动态创造条件，从而为适应发展提供条件。