Page 252 - DMGT505_MANAGEMENT_INFORMATION_SYSTEM

Unit 13: Redesigning the Organization with Information Systems

Early BPR results led to the formulation of a new generation of BPR rhetoric from its founders. Notes
This revisionist BPR thinking increasingly focuses on the cultural context of the organization.
The founders no longer stress the radical approach that was in the original BPR thinking. The
new rhetoric of BPR emphasizes the importance of people and the change management aspects
of implementation. Instead of dramatic and wide ranging process changes, revised BPR thinking
calls for a holistic approach to reengineering that involves business processes, technology, and
social system issues (including culture). Revisionist BPR thinking looks to redesign critical
business processes that will confer the most value through targeted changes to organization,
processes, technology, and culture. The aim is no longer to change the organization’s entire
culture but only to target those aspects of culture that are critical to the success of reengineering
implementation. An illustration of this is the case of instituting multiskilled jobs and job rotations
in a culture that values specialized trade skills. A blanket enforcement of this change will
undoubtedly engender widespread resistance. The recognition that wholesale change of the
corporation is likely to fail led to changes in BPR thinking toward focusing on small leap
improvement projects. It is often easier to achieve consensus among the affected parties in this
type of project, which has been shown to significantly reduce implementation timeline. Although
IT is still a key enabler, it has become less important in revisionist BPR thinking. People led
change, rather than system-led change, is increasingly viewed as critical to achieve project
success. In short, the ideal of process enterprise is still the goal; however, the path to this goal is
not in one gigantic step but a series of smaller steps.

13.2.3 Definition of BPR

BPR was first introduced in a research program at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
in the early nineties. The term was used in the description of Davenport and Short’s 1990 research
project. They found out that the implementation of modern information technology in
organizations means not only automation of managerial and production tasks but that it also
has a direct effect on the quality of the work done. Davenport (1993), one of the fathers of BPR
describes ‘business process redesign’ as:
“The analysis and design of workflows and processes within and between organizations. Business activities
should be viewed as more than a collection of individual or even functional tasks; they should be broken
down into processes that can be designed for maximum effectiveness, in both manufacturing and service
environments.”
It is argued by some researchers that there is no commonly agreed definition of BPR. However,
the book Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution by Hammer and
Champy (1993) is widely referenced by most BPR researchers and is regarded as one of the
starting points of BPR. The following is their definition of BPR:
“Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic
improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed.”

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
5. Processes could involve two types of activities, ................................... and operational.
6. ................................... is an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency
and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations.
7. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from
a “.................................. ” perspective and determine how they can best construct these
processes to improve how they conduct business.

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