Challenging the paradigm of the process enterprise: a case study analysis
of BPR implementation: Article Summary
The authors of this article focus on the implementation of BPR which is based on process at the expense of the functional organizational structures. Improving business performance is the main catalyst for the implementation of new approaches like BPR which are especially promoted by Champy, Hammer anddavenport exponents. Focusing on the implementation of BPR in two UK organizations, the paper analyzes the impact of the processes. To understand the results that were gotten from the re-engineering from functional lines to process in the two companies, research was conducted through semi-structured interviews. The interviews were based on several factors like business performance, employee morale, product and service delivery and the like. Data was analyzed through structured notes anddescriptive case study protocols. It is vital to grasp that one was a retail company while the other was an electronics and they were both multinationals illustrating the spectrum of the impact, be it negative or positive.
According to the results gotten, some of the realized benefits of the new process structures included increased market responsiveness and they note the functions collaborated more effectively than before, especially in the electronics company. In addition, they noted that objectives of each organization were aligned and thus easily accomplished. On the other hand, increased costs, complexities, operations network inefficiency, and duplication of functional expertise were also noted as the negatives. According to the authors, what the research indicated was that both function lines and BPR had benefits in different parts of the organizations and in accomplishing different strategies. They also proposed that basing an organizational design on a network but not a matrix would offer company flexibility. Nevertheless, matrix structures are also effective when a company is adopting mixed strategies.