Interpreting Business Process Re-Engineering on Organization Work Flow

The advent and growth of recent discussion on business process re-engineering (BPR) has been accompanied by its increasing application to a myriad of research areas and approaches. This paper examines its tenets using sociological and organizational paradigms and investigates its significance for software geared to enhancing coordinative and cooperative working methods and relationships within organizations. By taking the experience of implementors of such software and using a grounded and interpretive approach, initial conclusions suggest that BPR concepts have an impact for large scale and highly structured working activities but seems to have an interestingly inverse relationship with information-oriented cooperative and user-enhanceable approaches to process coordination and improvement. Taking these themes, this paper outlines some conceptual interpretations and theoretical managerial considerations for cooperative/coordinative and process work flow implementations.

Decentralization of decision-making in Canada's health system: the Sunnybrook experience

Though there is a significant literature which notes that physicians are fast becoming organizational members, there has been little research evidence to suggest that the adoption of new management models have actually facilitated their involvement. This study sought to examine whether a conscious effort at decentralizing decisions at the clinical unit level would actually result in increased involvement of physicians and other clinicians in decision-making at that level. Two major surveys examining individual roles and responsibilities and unit relationships with other units were conducted, at two points in time, in a large Canadian tertiary care centre. Results suggest that physicians had experienced an increase in administrative discretion. There was an overall increase of many groups in influencing clinical unit decisions with a perceived decrease in senior management influence in budget administration at the unit level. Lessons learned in conducting this type of research are described.

A Theoretical Consideration of Leadership and the Global Heterarchy

Global heterarchy represents a novel structural design to facilitate multinational operations. Heterarchy is characterized by multiple operational centers, bottom-up management, control through strong corporate culture, interorganizational alliances, and radical problem orientation. To accommodate these unique attributes, Hedlund and Rolander (1990) outlined an alternative framework for the relationship between organizational strategy, structure and environment. Despite an abundance of theory which suggests that leadership is important for the design and development of organizational strategy and structure, Hedlund and Rolander's model ignores linkages among leadership, strategy, structure and environment. This paper examines the impact of leadership on strategy, structure and environment for the global heterarchy.

Personalmanagement in Italien

Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird nach einer Einordnung des Personalmanagements in den spezifischen gesellschaftlichen Kontext zunächst die Entwicklung von Forschung und Lehre skizziert. Danach werden vier Schwerpunkte der italienischen Führungslehre herausgearbeitet. Im vierten Teil werden die neueren Entwicklungen im Personalmanagement anhand von vier Praxisbeispielen (Fiat, Procter & Gamble, Pirelli und Benetton) erläutert. In der abschließenden Einschätzung äußern die Autoren die Ansicht, daß trotz oder gerade wegen der ungünstigen politischen Rahmenbedingungen die “lernende Organisation” in Italien aufgrund vorhandener Kreativität, Phantasie und Flexilibität gute Verwirklichungschancen hat.

Technological frames

In this article, we build on and extend research into the cognitions and values of users and designers by proposing a systematic approach for examining the underlying assumptions, expectations, and knowledge that people have about technology. Such interpretations of technology (which we call technological frames) are central to understanding technological development, use, and change in organizations. We suggest that where the technological frames of key groups in organizations—such as managers, technologists, and users— are significantly different, difficulties and conflict around the development, use, and change of technology may result. We use the findings of an empirical study to illustrate how the nature, value, and use of a groupware technology were interpreted by various organizational stakeholders, resulting in outcomes that deviated from those expected. We argue that technological frames offer an interesting and useful analytic perspective for explaining an anticipating actions and meanings that are not easily obtained with other theoretical lenses.

Rich and lean representations of information for knowledge work

Applying information systems to complex intellectual tasks requires the representation and codification of ambiguous and fragmentary forms of data. This application effects changes not only in representation of this data, but in the relationships between users and tools, techniques, or systems for data interpretation. It also affects the complex infrastructures that support this process. This article uses a package metaphor to examine the impact on one domain of knowledge work, classical scholarship, of the “computerization” of a key data source, the textual edition. The construction of one on-line textual databank, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG), has altered the traditional relationships between text “owners” and “users” has changed the role of the text as a conduit for social and historical information, and has disrupted traditional patterns of transmitting domain expertise. A rich information resource has become lean in its electronic form.

The TLG has standardized the corpus of Greek literature and eased access to a broad range of works, including rare and out-of-print materials. At the same time, its construction has decoupled often-contested textual sources from their accompanying critical notes and supplemental materials. The use of the TLG has also shifted notions of objectivity, accuracy, and requisite expertise within the community. The transmission of domain knowledge must now be coupled with the transmission of technical knowledge, a process for which no infrastructure is currently in place. These experiences parallel those of other knowledge workers. “Mechanistic” paradigms of information and knowledge cannot accommodate important components of computing packages, including the transmission of expertise and infrastructures for tool development and evaluation. Recent developments in information storage and dissemination, including gophers and ftp sites may indicate that despite technical advances that could be used to support rich representations (such as hypermedia and multimedia), leaner forms of data may prevail.

Finding a happy medium

The sometimes observed negative social effects of electronic communication technology are often attributed to the characteristics of the technology itself. Electronic mail, for instance, filters out personal and social cues and provides new capabilities not found in traditional media, and it has been argued that these factors have consequences such as “flaming” and depersonalization. Alternative theoretical perspectives on the impacts of information technology suggest that our ability to explain these outcomes might be enhanced by attending to users' intentional choices about how to use technology and to unpredictable technology usage patterns that emerge when users interact with the technology and each other. These alternative perspectives are examined in the context of an exploratory case study of a complex organization in which electronic mail was heavily used.

Users were found to select email deliberately when they wished to avoid unwanted social interactions. At the same time, they actively took steps to avoid negative outcomes, such as depersonalization of their relationships with subordinates. However, despite their well-intentioned efforts, some negative social effects did occur that cannot entirely be attributed to the technological characteristics of electronic communication. Instead, they appear to be ironic side effects of users' thoughtful efforts to use email effectively. These results suggest the value of according a prominent role in explanations of technology impacts to users' intended and unintended technology uses. The results also imply that negative social effects from using electronic communication technology may not prove easy to eradicate, despite technological developments such as multimedia integration, and despite efforts to train users in the best email “etiquette.”

Information systems strategy and implementation

The formation and implementation of strategy with respect to computer-based information systems (IS) are important issues in many contemporary organizations, including those in the financial services sector. This paper describes and analyzes an in-depth case study of the strategy formation and implementation process in one such organization, a medium-sized UK building society, and relates the process to its organizational and broader contexts; the organization is examined over a period of several years and under the contrasting leadership of two different chief executives. The case study is used to develop some general implications on IS strategy and implementation, which can be taken as themes for debate in any new situation. The paper provides an example of a more detailed perspective on processes in IS strategy and implementation than typically available in the literature. In addition, a new framework for further research in this area is developed, which directs the researcher toward exploring the dynamic interplay of strategic content, multilevel contexts, and cultural and political perspectives on the process of change.