Managing Flexibility ― People, Process, Technology and Business

This edited book provides a conceptual framework for managing flexibility in the areas of people, processes, technology and business, supported by research/case applications in various types of flexibility in business. The book is organized into five parts: (i) Managing Flexibility; (ii) People Flexibility; (iii) Process Flexibility; (iv) Flexibility in Technology and Innovation Management; (v) Business Flexibility. Managing flexibility at the people, processes, technology and business level is emerging as a key feature of business excellence, as it encompasses both choice and speed – two important requirements. The growing need for flexibility in business can be seen from reactive as well as proactive perspectives. A business enterprise needs to have reactive flexibility (the ability to adapt and respond) to cope with the changing and uncertain business environment. It may also endeavor to strategically create flexibility by way of leadership change, reengineering, product and process innovation, use of information and communication technology, learning orientation, among others.

Sushil is Abdulaziz Alsagar chair professor (professor of strategic, flexible systems and technology management), and Chair, Strategic Management Group at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He has served as visiting professor and delivered seminars in many leading universities; some representative ones are University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, Paris, among others. He is an active researcher and supervised more than 60 doctoral dissertations. He has 20 books to his credit in the areas of flexibility, strategy, systems thinking, and technology management. He has over 300 papers in various refereed journals and conferences and pioneered the area of “flexible systems management”, making original contributions to the field of knowledge in the form of interpretive approaches in management. He is the founder editor-in-chief of Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management and serving on the editorial boards of leading international journals. He is the founder president of the professional body, “Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management.” Currently he is serving as an independent director on the boards of RINL and HSCC.

Kanika T. Bhal is Modi Chair Professor and Head at the Department of Management Studies at IIT Delhi. A PhD from IIT Kanpur, and a visiting fellow at Sloan School of Management (Cambridge, USA), she is an expert in behavioural sciences in general and leadership in particular. She has published several articles in national and international journals and conferences and is on the editorial boards of national and international journals. She has authored books on leadership, culture and ethics. She has conducted sponsored research on several nationally and internationally funded (with Fordham University, Bronx, USA and Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, USA) projects. Besides being a consultant to various national organizations like Fifth Central Pay Commission of India, First National Judicial Pay Commission of India, DRDO, UPSC, DGS&D, Ministry of Rural Development NICD, and Ministry of Environment and Forests; she is invited as expert on Government committees and is a member of the Academy of Management, USA; Society for Industrial Organization and Psychology; and Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management.

Surya Prakash Singh is an associate professor in the area of operations management at the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi. He obtained his PhD from IIT Kanpur and Post-Doctoral fellowship in Manufacturing Systems from Singapore-MIT Alliance, National University of Singapore. Prior to joining IIT Delhi, he was faculty at Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar and visiting faculty at Management Centre, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, India. His research interests includes facility layout and locations problems, optimization techniques, optimizing supply chains, materials management, designing heuristics and meta-heuristics, and operations research. He has published his work in various leading international journals such as International Journal of Production Research, Lecture notes in Computer Science, International Journal of Advance Manufacturing Technology, European Journal of Management, Review of Business Research, and International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, among others. He has also contributed chapters in edited volumes published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Publishing House “Technika” Vilinius, Lithuania (Continuous Optimization And Knowledge-Based Technologies), and INTECH publisher, Vienna, Austria (Travelling Salesman Problem: Theory And Applications). He is a life member of IAENG, Hong Kong; senior member, International Association of Computer science and Information Technology, Singapore; and senior member, ACEEE, India. He is on the Edi