Although cloud computing is associated with organizational agility, anecdotal evidence points to resistance to cloud computing by employees in information technology (IT) units. We explored the links between software as a service (SaaS) and organizational agility by conducting two stages of interviews with key informants in large organizations, and by employing affordance and inertia-theoretical lenses. Two basic affordances emerged from the retroductive data analysis – implementing quickly and sourcing independently – which in turn yielded two higher-level affordances: trialing alternatives and self-organizing business teams. We developed a model that explains how and why these four affordances enhance agility by accelerating the sensing-to-acting process of organizations. We also describe how five categories of organizational inertia in IT units hinder agility. Our main contribution is how adopting SaaS applications enables organizational agility while highlighting the role of IT unit inertia in SaaS affordance actualization processes.

尽管云计算与组织敏捷性相关，但坊间证据表明，信息技术 (IT) 部门的员工对云计算有抵触情绪。我们通过对大型组织中的关键知情人进行两个阶段的访谈，并采用可供性和惯性理论的视角，探讨了软件即服务 (SaaS) 和组织敏捷性之间的联系。追溯性数据分析产生了两种基本的可供性——快速实施和独立采购——这反过来又产生了两种更高层次的可供性：尝试替代方案和自组织业务团队。我们开发了一个模型，解释了这四种可供性如何以及为何通过加速组织的感知到行动过程来增强敏捷性。我们还描述了 IT 部门中五类组织惯性如何阻碍敏捷性。我们的主要贡献是如何采用 SaaS 应用程序实现组织敏捷性，同时强调 IT 部门惯性在 SaaS 可供性实现流程中的作用。