Abstract
The business process reengineering (BPR) literature maintains that the use of computerized tools for BPR-related tasks such as process modeling, simulation, project management, and human resource analysis has a positive influence on the effectiveness of business process redesigns. Our hermeneutic study of text and text analogues surrounding BPR tool use in two organizations reveals that the use of computerized tools can have two opposing effects on redesign effectiveness. We find that, consistent with the existing BPR literature, BPR tools can indeed enhance redesign effectiveness by providing (1) a structure to the redesign process; (2) cognitive support to the redesigners; and (3) a mode for standardized representation of the redesigns. However, we also discover that the autonomization of electronically represented redesigns and the organizational members’ subsequent focus on standardized, detailed, and objectified representations (rather than on socially shared understandings) of the redesign, can lead to an alienation of the original redesigners from the business processes that they envisioned. This alienation, coupled with the redesigners’ frustration arising from the frequent and sometimes meaningless changes to the electronically objectified redesigns mandated by other BPR stakeholders in the organization, can contribute to inconsistencies in the redesign, thus resulting in a negative influence of BPR tools on redesign effectiveness.
Our study (1) illustrates the use of the “hermeneutic circle” to understand the role of computerized tools in business process redesign; (2) argues that the role of computerized BPR tools can be better understood by focusing on the sociotechnical interaction of the redesigners with the computerized tools in an organizational context rather than by studying the tools in isolation; and (3) indicates that the effect of tools on redesign effectiveness depends on the relative strengths of the two opposing effects.
The authors would like to thank John McKinney, Joseph Valacich, Dave Chatterjee, and Sundeep Sahay for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.
The original version of this chapter was revised: The copyright line was incorrect. This has been corrected. The Erratum to this chapter is available at DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-35566-5_20
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Sarker, S., Lee, A.S. (1999). A Hermeneutic Interpretation of the Effect of Computerized BPR Tools on Redesign Effectiveness in Two Organizations. In: Ngwenyama, O., Introna, L.D., Myers, M.D., DeGross, J.I. (eds) New Information Technologies in Organizational Processes. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 20. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35566-5_13
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