Developing a process re-engineering-oriented organizational change exploratory simulation system (PROCESS)

Abstract

In the past two decades, business process re-engineering (BPR) and organizational restructuring (OR) have been two of the most popular approaches to improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of an organization. However, a review of the relevant literature reveals that the two approaches have been studied in isolation. The theoretical gap in academic research is also reflected in practice. The present paper therefore proposes a customer-oriented and process-focused two-stage framework, entitled the ‘process re-engineering-oriented organizational change exploratory simulation system’ (‘PROCESS’), to address these theoretical deficiencies. Two key concepts are introduced in this two-stage framework. The first is the ‘process module’ (PM), which indicates a set of common sequential activities that can be grouped as a subunit of a business process. The second is the ‘macro-process’ (MP), which indicates that a set of business processes have similar characteristics or functions. The two concepts serve as ‘stepping stones’ between BPR and OR. Based on these two concepts, the decision rules and the mathematical/simulation model can be developed under this two-stage framework. The paper then presents a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ‘PROCESS’.

Keywords:

• Organizational change management
• Business process re-engineering
• Organizational restructuring

Acknowledgement

This study was funded by the National Science Council, Republic of China (Taiwan) (NSC 94-2213-E-007-028).