Managing Change
Tactical responses to a changed environment

This section will introduce two key terms used in modelling and describing organizational systems: Processes and Structures. I will argue that the approaches taken by organizations to managing the social, economic and cultural changes outlined in the previous section can be characterized as tactical (short term) responses to change based on managing their own internal processes and structures.

If you are not familiar with the concept of a tactics you should look at the notes of strategy and tactics from another course or one of the text books from the MIS books section.

Faced with the need to make immediate changes in the short term, organizations typically focus on changes to either their processes or structure. The lecture will look at two examples of these responses to the social, economic and cultural changes outlined in the previous section.

• Process Models
  Processes are self-contained. They have clearly defined boundaries and attributes. In software terms, processes can be though of as an object: a self-contained entity that contains of both data and procedures to manipulate that data. In business terms, processes can be thought of as an activity and the associated resources required to serve a particular type of customer. Processes are abstractions that parcel up work activities in a way that makes them self sufficient or independent of the surrounding environment.

• Structural Models
  Organizational structures define relationships between processes. Relationships can be thought of as a set of dependencies between processes. In software terms, these may be formal and explicit statements of the connections between particular software objects. In organizational terms, they might be the social, political and business constraints that influence the distribution of tasks and resources within the organization. Relationships are also abstractions that describe the interdependencies between activities in a way that makes them independent of the details of the task itself.

Example: Process change due to globalization

Problem = A process oriented approach requires all of the elements of the process to be known in advance and clearly defined. Working with other countries introduces time/place/culture discontinuities.
Response = One response is to attempt top modify or re-design business processes themselves to take account of this diversity.

Example: Structural change due to increased competition

Problem = A relationship oriented view of work means that all of the constraints governing a particular activity are known in advance. However, the pace of change and the role of knowledge mean that relationships are now fluid, unpredictable and can not be known in advance.
Response = One response to this is to attempt to restructure an organization into new organizational forms such as virtual teams

Reading

Books

• See any of the books from the MIS books section

Articles

• Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. Moodie, D. Busuttil, A. (1999) Organizational change mediated by e-mail and Intranet, Information Technology and People, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1999, pp. 9-26
• Jarvenpaa, SL. and Leidner, DE. (1998) Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Environments. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Vol. 4. June.
• Lipnack, J and Stamps, J. (1997) Virtual Teams: reaching across space, time, and organizations with technology. John Wiley and Sons Inc. New York.
• Stewart, T A (1993) Re-engineering, the Hot New Management Tool, Fortune, 127, August 23, pp 41-48.
• Davidson, W. H. (1993). Beyond Re-Engineering: The Three Phases of Business Transformation, IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1, January (reprinted in IEEE Engineering Management Review, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer, 1996, pp. 17-26).
• Davenport, T H and Short, J E (1990) The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign, Sloan Management Review, Summer, pp 11-27.

Links

• If you wish to search for additional sources of information, use the MIS links page

• Business Process Re-Engineering: A Design Perspective
  This paper is an editorial for a special issue of the IJFMS. The opening pages contain a useful review of BPR
• Business Process Re engineering
  A summary of Don't Automate, Obliterate by Michael Hammer, Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug 90
• Empowerment or enslavement? A case of process-based organizational change in Hong Kong
  Organizational change initiatives tend to encapsulate the values of the societies in which they were developed. The case of a business process re-engineering project in Hong Kong illustrates an attempt to empower team members that paradoxically resulted in their psychological enslavement.
• The Fad That Forgot People
  One of reengineering's creators explains the iron triangle that turned a modest idea into a destructive fad.

• Supporting Collaboration in Distributed Software Engineering Teams
  Changes in support technology, economic factors and globalization of the software process is resulting in the geographical separation of personnel. This paper presents the results from a study of communication and co-operation practices on a range of distributed software projects.
• The Essence of Distributed Work: The Case of the Linux Kernel
  This paper provides a historical account of how the Linux operating system kernel was developed from three different perspectives. The Linux electronic community was the organizing structure that coordinated the efforts of the individual programmers.
• Some Case Studies in Collaboration
  A chapter from Groupware - The Changing Environment By David Coleman. This touches on several issues and includes a case study of Oticon from Copenhagen.
• Extensively Computerized Work Groups as Communities-of-Practice
  Two contrasting case studies of professional and clerical workers.