Business Process Re-engineering
Originally published as ETHIcol in the IMIS Journal Volume 6 No 2 (April 1996)
Much has been written about the success and failure of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). Leadership, organisational, cultural and people issues have been identified as the major obstacles in achieving BPR success. Without doubt, there will be winners and losers in this activity. There is evidence to suggest that BPR errs on being socially insensitive and perhaps this is why most re-engineering efforts have had little measurable impact on the overall business. Consequently, it is important that organisations about to embark on such programmes are fully aware of the potential impact on individuals, groups, and society as a whole. Given the major impact that BPR has on an organisation and that this impact involves the generation, dissemination and use of information to sustain the redesigned processes it is inevitable that IT has a central role in this activity. For example, telecommunications often figures in reducing co-ordination costs or increasing the scope of co-ordination, and shared databases are commonplace in the provision of information across and during processes. Within BPR there are numerous activities and decisions to be made and most of these will have an ethical dimension. There are issues relating to both the process and the outcome of BPR. In his recent book, The Re-engineering Revolution - The Handbook, Michael Hammer sets out 10 guidelines based on potential reasons for failure. The two most ethically significant are:

Prof. Simon Rogerson

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Make sure that you know what re-engineering really is before you attempt to do it and then do it, not something else. Any successful re-engineering effort must take into account the personal needs of the individuals it will affect. The new process must offer some benefit to the people who