Abstract
Managerial theory distilled into tidy concepts is continually and
almost ritually launched into the international and national
management audiences. The paper discuss the contemporary exemplar
of such management concepts: Business Process Reengineering (BPR).
By taking the management fads serious it might be possible to find
new ways of handling the development of labour. Although not as
powerful as their rhetoric, the concepts do have impact on the
development of the organisation and labour. Thus the fads and the
concepts is societally facilitating new visions and theories on
the development of enterprises. The moulding encompasses the role
of management, consultants and possible participation of employees
in the change.The contribution focus on exemplars of BPR promoted
by actors or coalitions of actors. Taking the scene of Denmark as
unit of analysis. The analysis show significant differences even
at central elements between Danish BPR-promoters. They occurred on
the issues of employment effects, change management, employee
participation, the role of IT, and radical change. On the other
hand convergence occurred on the cross functional process view and
the silencing of the work-visions formulated by Champy &
hammer. the differences seldom leads to open controversy, though
the issue of the employment effect did expose different opinions
in the professional press. most of the "battle" is however
silently fought between managers and with consultants.the emphasis
on differences between the bpr-variants shows that it is
worthwhile studying the societal shaping process of a management
concept. some actors do participate in construing a worldwide
model of the enterprise and the related needed enterprise
transformation, but others relate their interpretation of the
concepts, to perceived enterprise reality in danish industrial
sectors. the co-existence of convergence and differences between
bpr-concepts can furthermore be interpreted as a two sided
balance; On the one hand a common societal diffusion process,
where the consultants have a joint interest in a spread of
knowledge about, and attention to the concept. And on the other
hand the need for the consultants to differentiate their product
(the concept) from others available on the market.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | "Management at a Crossroads" Conference Proceedings, volume 3 Economic and Technological Developments and Employment |
| Place of Publication | Groningen |
| Publisher | Faculty of Management and Organization, Groningen University |
| Publication date | 1997 |
| Pages | 360-380 |
| Publication status | Published - 1997 |
| Event | Management at a crossroads - University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands Duration: 10 Sept 1997 → 12 Sept 1997 |
Conference
| Conference | Management at a crossroads |
|---|---|
| Location | University of Groningen |
| Country/Territory | Netherlands |
| City | Groningen |
| Period | 10/09/1997 → 12/09/1997 |