Business Process Reengineering and Human Resource Management
Business Process Reengineering and Human Resource Management
By
Hugh Willmott
Judge Institute of Management
University of Cambridge, UK
A later version of this article appears in Personal Review, 23, 3: 34-46 (1994)
For more information on published articles by Hugh Willmott please refer to http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/close/hr22/hcwhomeBusiness Process Reengineering and Human Resource Management
Hugh Willmott
Manchester School of Management, UMIST
Abstract
This article reviews the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) vision of radical business process change, focusing upon the use of information technology to facilitate a shift away from linear/sequential work organization towards parallel processing and multidisciplinary teamworking. It highlights BPR’s cursory treatment of the human dimension of its programme for radical organizational change and raises the question of how HRM specialists are to respond to its trivialisation of the complexities and dilemmas associated with the reengineering of work processes. Introduction
‘There is a new-look menu over at the Consultants’Cafe. Good old soupe du TQM and change management pate are off. Perhaps you would care to try some business process reengineering instead?’
1
During the 1980s, executives were invited to sample and digest a series of ‘recipes’ for enhancing corporate performance. Notably, they were urged by Peters and Waterman to emulate the successes of ‘excellent’companies by strengthening their corporate cultures
2
. More recently, Total Quality Management (TQM) has been widely promoted and adopted as a means of achieving continuous improvement
3
. However,
‘A recent study indicates that around 85% of the organizations using TQM are disappointed with the outcome ....... experts are predicting that TQM will be replaced by corporate re-engineering as the technique most favoured by organizations anxious to maximise their people and material resources’
4
In order to
By
Hugh Willmott
Judge Institute of Management
University of Cambridge, UK
A later version of this article appears in Personal Review, 23, 3: 34-46 (1994)
For more information on published articles by Hugh Willmott please refer to http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/close/hr22/hcwhomeBusiness Process Reengineering and Human Resource Management
Hugh Willmott
Manchester School of Management, UMIST
Abstract
This article reviews the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) vision of radical business process change, focusing upon the use of information technology to facilitate a shift away from linear/sequential work organization towards parallel processing and multidisciplinary teamworking. It highlights BPR’s cursory treatment of the human dimension of its programme for radical organizational change and raises the question of how HRM specialists are to respond to its trivialisation of the complexities and dilemmas associated with the reengineering of work processes. Introduction
‘There is a new-look menu over at the Consultants’Cafe. Good old soupe du TQM and change management pate are off. Perhaps you would care to try some business process reengineering instead?’
1
During the 1980s, executives were invited to sample and digest a series of ‘recipes’ for enhancing corporate performance. Notably, they were urged by Peters and Waterman to emulate the successes of ‘excellent’companies by strengthening their corporate cultures
2
. More recently, Total Quality Management (TQM) has been widely promoted and adopted as a means of achieving continuous improvement
3
. However,
‘A recent study indicates that around 85% of the organizations using TQM are disappointed with the outcome ....... experts are predicting that TQM will be replaced by corporate re-engineering as the technique most favoured by organizations anxious to maximise their people and material resources’
4
In order to