In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts?
Change can take many forms; it can be planned or unplanned, incremental or radical , and recurrent or unprecedented. Trends in the process or sequence of changes can be observed over time. These trends can be accelerating or decelerating in time, and they can move toward equilibrium, oscillation, chaos, or randomness in the behavior of the organizational enitity being examined. Thus, the basic concept of organization change involves three ideas: difference, at different temporal moments, between states of an organizational unit or system.
Automation
-Mechanizing procedures to speed up the performance of existing tasks.
-most common form of IT-enabled change
-involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively
-akin to putting a larger motor in an existing vehicle
Rationalization of Procedures
-The streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient
-follows quickly from early automation
[size=10] [Toshiba had to rationalize its procedures down to the level of installation manuals and software instruction and had to create standard names and formats for the data items in its global data warehouse. Without a large amount of business process rationalization, computer technology would have been useless at Toshiba (what ERPs do) ]
Business Reengineering
-The radical redesign of business processes, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks to improve cost, quality, and service and to maximize the benefits of information technology
-Involves radical rethinking
-Can change the way an organization conducts its business
-Strikes fear, its expensive, its very risky and its extremely difficult to carry out and manage
-Develop the business vision and process objective
Business Process Re-engineering Steps:
-Identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback)
-Understand and measure the performance of existing processes
-Identify the opportunities for applying information technology
-Build a prototype of the new process
Paradigm Shifts
-Radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization
-akin to rethinking not only the automobile, but transportation itself
-e-business is a paradigm shift
-Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge
-70% of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail
-Why then change? Because the rewards are high!
Each kinds of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT carries different rewards and risks. The most common form of IT-enabled organizational change or the first phase of IT adoption is automation. This has allowed employees to automate a number of time-consuming and error-prone activities and gain benefits in cycle-time, productivity, and accuracy. For example, a main contractor makes use of standalone software to keep track all Request For Information (RFI) in a project.
A deeper form of organization change or the second phase of IT adoption is rationalization of procedures. Automation frequently reveals bottlenecks in production and makes the existing arrangement of procedures and structures painfully cumbersome. Rationalization of procedures involves the streamlining of standard operating procedures, which eliminates obvious bottlenecks, so that operating procedures become more efficient. Roughly speaking, it is a process of fine tuning the first step. For example, the main contractor implements an intranet and standardizes the data in RFI across all projects in the enterprise.
A more powerful type of organizational change or the third phase of IT adoption is business process reengineering, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified, and redesigned. Reengineering involves radically rethinking the flow of work and the construction business processes with the intention to radically reduce the costs of businesses. Using IT, organizations can rethink and streamline their business processes to improve speed, service, and quality. Business process reengineering reorganizes workflows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks. It is much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures because it requires a new vision of how the process is to be organized. For example, the main contractor sets up an extranet to online collaborate with the architect for the RFI process.
Paradigm Shift is the fourth kind of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT. It is a dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which ultimately changes the way projects are implemented. For example, accessing applications and data from the Web instead of from local servers is a paradigm shift.
Not many construction industry players have moved beyond the first phase of automation. However, there are some companies have committed to a continuing investment in technological advancement and organizational change. By changing how they are organized and do business, they have achieved far greater benefits than available through automation alone. Companies like this have succeeded in staying ahead of their competitors not merely by automating but by changing their organization as well. Their strategic advantage has been their preparedness and ability to continually be innovative, and to manage the change necessary to gain substantial business benefits.
The changes in technology has impact the whole sectors and even the whole society. This is because the changes take place at system level, involving technology and market shifts. This involves the convergence of a number of trends which result in a 'paradigm shift' where the old order is replaced. For example, the invention of computer has long been replaced the usage of a typewriter, and since after the appearance of this computer, scenario of the workplace has changed significantly. We can see that all the work can be done in a short time. Computer has become a crucial tool in any office in the world. There are many examples of the technology advances such as the internet, e-business, mobile phone and many more that makes every activities becomes faster and easier. Therefore, based on my readings the most radical type of change are all of the aforementioned structural organizational change, beginning from Automation (wherein an organization will adopt what's the latest technology) proceeds Rationalization of Procedures (which eliminates bottleneck to make automation efficient) followed by Business Process Re engineering (which maximizes the benefits of IT) and lastly is the Paradigm shift (which is a transformation driven by change).
Change can take many forms; it can be planned or unplanned, incremental or radical , and recurrent or unprecedented. Trends in the process or sequence of changes can be observed over time. These trends can be accelerating or decelerating in time, and they can move toward equilibrium, oscillation, chaos, or randomness in the behavior of the organizational enitity being examined. Thus, the basic concept of organization change involves three ideas: difference, at different temporal moments, between states of an organizational unit or system.
Automation
-Mechanizing procedures to speed up the performance of existing tasks.
-most common form of IT-enabled change
-involves assisting employees perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively
-akin to putting a larger motor in an existing vehicle
Rationalization of Procedures
-The streamlining of existing operating procedures, eliminating obvious bottlenecks so that automation makes operating procedures more efficient
-follows quickly from early automation
[size=10] [Toshiba had to rationalize its procedures down to the level of installation manuals and software instruction and had to create standard names and formats for the data items in its global data warehouse. Without a large amount of business process rationalization, computer technology would have been useless at Toshiba (what ERPs do) ]
Business Reengineering
-The radical redesign of business processes, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks to improve cost, quality, and service and to maximize the benefits of information technology
-Involves radical rethinking
-Can change the way an organization conducts its business
-Strikes fear, its expensive, its very risky and its extremely difficult to carry out and manage
-Develop the business vision and process objective
Business Process Re-engineering Steps:
-Identify the processes to be redesigned (core and highest payback)
-Understand and measure the performance of existing processes
-Identify the opportunities for applying information technology
-Build a prototype of the new process
Paradigm Shifts
-Radical reconceptualization of the nature of the business and the nature of the organization
-akin to rethinking not only the automobile, but transportation itself
-e-business is a paradigm shift
-Deciding which business process to get right is half the challenge
-70% of time programmatic reengineering efforts fail
-Why then change? Because the rewards are high!
Each kinds of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT carries different rewards and risks. The most common form of IT-enabled organizational change or the first phase of IT adoption is automation. This has allowed employees to automate a number of time-consuming and error-prone activities and gain benefits in cycle-time, productivity, and accuracy. For example, a main contractor makes use of standalone software to keep track all Request For Information (RFI) in a project.
A deeper form of organization change or the second phase of IT adoption is rationalization of procedures. Automation frequently reveals bottlenecks in production and makes the existing arrangement of procedures and structures painfully cumbersome. Rationalization of procedures involves the streamlining of standard operating procedures, which eliminates obvious bottlenecks, so that operating procedures become more efficient. Roughly speaking, it is a process of fine tuning the first step. For example, the main contractor implements an intranet and standardizes the data in RFI across all projects in the enterprise.
A more powerful type of organizational change or the third phase of IT adoption is business process reengineering, in which business processes are analyzed, simplified, and redesigned. Reengineering involves radically rethinking the flow of work and the construction business processes with the intention to radically reduce the costs of businesses. Using IT, organizations can rethink and streamline their business processes to improve speed, service, and quality. Business process reengineering reorganizes workflows, combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive tasks. It is much more ambitious than rationalization of procedures because it requires a new vision of how the process is to be organized. For example, the main contractor sets up an extranet to online collaborate with the architect for the RFI process.
Paradigm Shift is the fourth kind of structural organizational change that are enabled by IT. It is a dramatic change in methodology or practice. It often refers to a major change in thinking and planning, which ultimately changes the way projects are implemented. For example, accessing applications and data from the Web instead of from local servers is a paradigm shift.
Not many construction industry players have moved beyond the first phase of automation. However, there are some companies have committed to a continuing investment in technological advancement and organizational change. By changing how they are organized and do business, they have achieved far greater benefits than available through automation alone. Companies like this have succeeded in staying ahead of their competitors not merely by automating but by changing their organization as well. Their strategic advantage has been their preparedness and ability to continually be innovative, and to manage the change necessary to gain substantial business benefits.
The changes in technology has impact the whole sectors and even the whole society. This is because the changes take place at system level, involving technology and market shifts. This involves the convergence of a number of trends which result in a 'paradigm shift' where the old order is replaced. For example, the invention of computer has long been replaced the usage of a typewriter, and since after the appearance of this computer, scenario of the workplace has changed significantly. We can see that all the work can be done in a short time. Computer has become a crucial tool in any office in the world. There are many examples of the technology advances such as the internet, e-business, mobile phone and many more that makes every activities becomes faster and easier. Therefore, based on my readings the most radical type of change are all of the aforementioned structural organizational change, beginning from Automation (wherein an organization will adopt what's the latest technology) proceeds Rationalization of Procedures (which eliminates bottleneck to make automation efficient) followed by Business Process Re engineering (which maximizes the benefits of IT) and lastly is the Paradigm shift (which is a transformation driven by change).
References:
Since the introduction of Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy back in the early 90s, business process reengineering principles and processes has faced enormous challenges. The primary challenge is the willingness of managers and workers to embrace and adopt reengineering solutions for the fear of losing their jobs, positions or influence in the workplace. Now, another reengineering trend is emerging called Income Reengineering. Income Reengineering principles and processes are the counterbalance to business processes reengineering in that Income reengineering seeks to link worker prosperity to reengineering applications.
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