Identifying Sources of Reengineering Failures: A Study of the Behavioral Factors Contributing to Reengineering Risks

Abstract:

Recent experience suggests that many reengineering efforts fail, and that they fail for reasons unrelated to the technical ability of organizations to implement information systems. Our research suggests that the two principal reasons for failure are functionality risk and political risk: respectively, the organization’s inability to understand its uncertain future strategic needs, and its inability to make painful and difficult changes in response to these future strategic needs. Recent research in the organizational change literature suggests that these risks are the result of conflict among the organization’s current strategy, its espoused degree of change, the actually accepted and generally smaller degree of change, and the generally larger degree of change that would be in some sense optimal. Moreover, the conflicts among these may be unperceived or undiscussable within the organization, exacerbating the risks. We summarize in a few testable hypotheses our experience with managing the risks of reengineering, and use a small set of representative case studies to examine these hypotheses informally.

Key Words and Phrases::

• business reengineering
• implementation of information systems
• risk of information systems

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric K. Clemons

Eric K. Clemons. See Guest Editor’s Introduction.

Matt E. Thatcher

Matt E. Thatcher is a Ph.D. candidate in the Operations and Information Management Department of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Thatcher also works with the Reginald H. Jones Center’s Project in Information Systems, Telecommunications, and Business Strategy. His education includes a B.S. in economics and an M.A. in information technology from The Wharton School. His research interests include strategic information systems, the impact of information systems on retail distribution channels, and the economic modeling of information technology productivity.

Michael C. Row

Michael C. Row. See Guest Editor’s Introduction.