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Empowerment, change and information technology: socio-technical design and business process re-engineering [review article]

Mitev, Nathalie N. (1996) Empowerment, change and information technology: socio-technical design and business process re-engineering [review article]. Personnel Review, 25 (4). pp. 56-66. ISSN 0048-3486

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Identification Number: 10.1108/EUM0000000004304

Abstract

Critically reviews and compares the concepts of business process re-engineering (BPR), which has recently addressed the issue of changing organizations through the use of information technology (IT) and socio-technical design (STD), which has traditionally been concerned with the matching of social and technical systems, seen as fundamental to the design of computer systems in organizations. Challenges the notion that STD can humanize BPR and argues that, by promoting this association, STD experts isolate such techniques as employee participation and teamwork from wider issues related to changing managerial discourses and economic contexts. BPR is remarkable in that it goes beyond previous managerial discourses such as total quality management, particularly in how it combines IT-induced change with “soft” ideas such as empowerment and teamwork, therefore reinforcing management control and diluting issues of power relationships. STD specialists have traditionally been dedicated to promoting emancipation and socially responsible choices, and should therefore seriously examine BPR in terms of its theoretical and ethical assumptions and its practical implications.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContaine...
Additional Information: © 1996 MCB University Press
Divisions: Management
Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2010 16:06
Last Modified: 03 Jan 2024 01:00
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/27450

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