Exploring the relationship between organizational agility, competitive intelligence and foresight as parts of an anticipatory system

Abstract

This paper looks at three aspects of an anticipatory system -competitive intelligence and foresight as the sensory capacity and modeling part of the system and organizational agility which is seen in this paper as the adapting/acting part of an anticipatory system. CI and foresight (sensory capacity and modeling part of the system) are measured using five questions/variables. Agility (the adapting/acting part of the system) is measured using 12 variables. While individually and in pairs, these three areas (CI, foresight, agility) have been studied, they have not been studied collectively in the context of Robert Rosen's anticipatory system. Academic study's examining a relationship between organizational agility and anticipatory systems are absent from the literature, and there are few studies looking at CI, foresight, and agility. All these elements within an anticipatory system are absent in the literature. Data used was collected through a survey of SCIP members (Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals, n.d.). Results suggest that organizational agility dimensions such as “rapidly react to emerging opportunities in markets” and “anticipate new business opportunities are statistically significantly correlated to CI and foresight. Thus, these elements of an anticipatory system appear to be related to each other.