Abstract

This study examined the impact of gender on the relationship between employees' agile and non-agile mindsets and organisational agility. It also considers the tech and non-tech focus as a potential moderator. The initial sample of 209 knowledge workers andthe replication sampleof 401 knowledge workers were applied to analyse the above relations using OLS regression by SPSS PROCES. The results showed that the most critical factor influencing organisational agility is the agile mindset of employees. Furthermore, the female effect is much stronger than that observed for men in the specialists' group. For the managers group, only the men's effect is significant, and this effect is substantial. Furthermore, results show thatwhile an agile mindset supports organisational agility, a non-agile mindset jeopardises it. The negative impact of a non-agile mindset on organisational agility is confirmed for men with tech and non-tech-oriented mindsets. However, this effect is stronger for non-technological ones. This means that technology works as a kind of mind stimulus. The technological focus is the agility driver, but it does not determine an agile mindset. The direct implication of this research for organisations aiming to be agile is to hire agile-mindset staff, care about agile-minded staff, and avoid employing people with a non-agile mindset. Regarding gender, this study revealed that female IT specialists are more agile than their male counterparts. However, male managers profoundly impact organisational agility. We still do not know how female managers impact agility in the IT sector. To find out, we need to employ a purposive sample. It is because neither a random nor a convenient sample reflecting the IT employee population would work for this purpose.

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