1. Introduction

2. Problem Statement

3. Literature review and theoretical framework

4. Methodology

5. Results

6. Discussion

7. Conclusions and Future Research

References

The accelerating pace of technical innovation, coupled with a turbulent socio-political global environment, has created opportunities and challenges for companies in terms of competitiveness and sustainability particularly the manufacturing sector. Manufacturers in the developing world struggle to create knowledge and practice-based management information systems that will allow them to operate competitively in the global market. This paper explores the integration of organizational information systems for competitive positioning, using a case study of a manufacturing company operating in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings suggest the need for an integrated management information system that incorporates management practices based on research, knowledge management, and organizational learning and capabilities.

Introduction

Manufacturers are experiencing a turbulent global environment that embodies challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties [25],[10]. While “the biggest problem in managing an organization today is failing to adapt to the changing world”, companies do not embrace this new environment due to custom [25]. As this attitude might prevent companies from being competitive in the global market, it is crucial for companies that they gain a broad understanding of the environment in which they operate. One driver of global competitiveness is information and communication technology (ICT), also called IT, which has created the global village that allows customers access to services or products anywhere at any time. This has significantly changed the way business is conducted in the 21st century and requires manufacturers to adapt in order to become competitive or sustain competitive advantage. Operating in the global market environment requires an adequate approach to the integration of management information systems for companies to be in a better position to obtain real-time data for better decision making. This means that manufacturers must develop new capabilities if they are to adapt rather than stagnate. It has been noted “companies that use ICT grow [sic] faster, invest more, and are more productive and profitable than those that do not” [25].

INTRODUCTION

LITERATURE REVIEW

HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT

RESEARCH DESIGN

ANALYSES AND RESULTS

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on decision-making within operational teams. Grounding our argumentation on group decision-making literature, we argue that adverse behavior patterns may affect the way in which consensus is achieved within the team, and that team performance has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the level of consensus. Then, by relying on leadership literature, we pose the hypothesis that the level of shared leadership inside the group moderates this U-shaped relationship. To empirically test our literaturebased argumentation, we use longitudinal data collected in the years 2014 and 2015 from Business process reengineering projects, each lasting three months, conducted by 141 Master of Science Students grouped in 34 teams. We conclude by emphasizing that it is important to control for the occurrence of behaviors which lead to “fake” consensus within operational teams, by observing the individuals’ satisfaction with respect to the group decision as well as their active participation in the decision-making process.

INTRODUCTION

As long as organizations deal with increasing demands for efficiency and responsiveness, team-based work structures have become a pervasive organizational model to face such challenges (Boyett & Conn, 1992). Relying on effective and efficient groups at all organization’s levels is fundamental in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. In fact, not just top management teams, but also operational teams play a crucial role in determining processes’ efficiency, customer satisfaction, and company success (Bamford & Griffin, 2008). The effectiveness of a group decision-making process may be, however, threatened by a few psychological behaviors which influence the way groups make the decision (Riccobono, Bruccoleri, & Großler, 2016; Swaab, Phillips, & Schaerer, ¨ 2016). Two organizational behavior theories exist underlining the potential pitfalls of a group decision-making process, but they explain two different phenomena: the “Abilene Paradox (AP)” (Harvey, 1974), and “Groupthink (GT)” (Janis & Mann, 1977). The extent to which such phenomena could be a real threat in an operational context has been described by Riccobono et al. (2016) and an example of how they lead groups to ineffective behaviors is reported by McAvoy and Butler (2009), in their empirical study on two software development teams trying to reach consensus on the way a software package must be developed. In one case, the group chose to adopt a prioritization method different from the one recommended by the Agile Software Development approach, and, even if it was proven to be ineffective, the group seeking for unanimous consensus persisted in adopting it. Here the authors identify GT behavior, where the team achieves consensus mostly because of their “seeking for unanimity” willingness. In the other case, the group, even though not all group members agreed, decided to follow standardized company procedures in the adoption of the Agile approach that were not fitting the specific project, and that finally led to the failure of the project. Here the authors recognize the presence of the AP behavior, where the group decision is made, even with little consensus, because of the team members’ “conforming to the others” inclination.

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

3. Methodology

4. Results

5. Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

Business process management (BPM) as a systematic managerial approach enables organization’s workflow to be more effective, more efficient and more capable to adapt to an ever-changing environment. BPM attempts to improve processes continuously with consideration of customer’s needs and requirements. The concept of BPM is not new, however many companies are still struggling with the implementation of BPM and with application of concept and methods based on process approach. The article presents findings of our research on current state of implementation and application of BPM in enterprises operating in Slovak Republic. Our study was focused on several aspects related to BPM such as examination of the reasons why managers decide to implement BPM in their businesses, the level of process mapping, the level of usage of concept and methods of BPM as well as the detection of limitations and barriers of process management implementation and application.

Introduction

As natural consequences of the competitiveness growth, of the impact of rising customer requirements and of the increase of the number of companies offering comparable products, companies are constantly trying to streamline the operation of the entire organization and to enhance own productivity. As many practitioners and researches pointed out, business process management in this regard helps to reduce costs, flow time and to improve quality, productivity and efficiency of processes in organization (Repa, 2012; Weske, 2012). By placing business processes on center stage, companies can gain the capabilities they need to innovate, reenergize performance and deliver the value current markets demand (Smith, Finglar, 2006). The company investigates all the details concerning the analysis of their process attributes because every detail can mean an opportunity to improve a competitive advantage and performance of the company. The process approach is seen as a key tool for continuous improvement of business processes. The concept of BPM is not new, but still remains as one of the current trends in management and not only in Slovakia. The benefits and advantages of BPM are quite clear for many managers but on the other hand, it is necessary also to mention the barriers and risks of process management implementation that are discouraging managers from BPM implementation. The main challenge remains how to implement process principles into an organization’s operation (Skrinjar, Trkman, 2013).

Today, the structure and behavior of the organizations have to be considered to help adaptation and evolution in a dynamic and more rapidly changing in the environment. Currently, the organizational changes are unexpected although they were expected in the past. New technology appeared the globalization of business processes and the changing of customer requirements are the most factors that affect the organization position among the market. The aims of most organizations are to grow with high performance, achieve excellent work, minimizing the cost of services and products, and add value to the customer through good understanding about their requirements. Consequently, they need to be efficiently and continually redesigned in a world of new technology, changes, and strong competitors and redesigned to actualize strategic and operational success. The causes of strategic failures of the organizations are the inefficiency of the business processes, the lack of innovation, entailing serious consequence for companies and its competitiveness. (Rao, L. et al, 2012) BPR is defined as “a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve substantial improvements in all performance metrics such as cost, speed, quality, and service.” Each of private and public organizations are either subject to use BPR or looking for an alternative methods which achieve the same results. Although a lot of organizations embraced the concept of BPR programs, only a few of them success, while the other fail with a high failure rate (e.g. 70%). (Rao, L. et al, 2012; Musa, M. A.et al, 2013) Many factors affect the success of the BPR that will be explained in details below and these factors including the understanding of the environment in which the business process exists. As a result, organizations need techniques and integration of knowledge management models to understand the environment which includes processes, people, workers, customer, and tools. The ontology contains a range of concepts and classifications, so it is developed to improve the comprehending structure of the organization and relationship between the organization goals it also used in the knowledge domain. Knowledge map “is a representation of knowledge which reveals relationships of the sources of knowledge by using the metaphor of maps to display a certain place.” It is a knowledge management technique that is used for different purposes, such as finding sources of knowledge or opportunities for knowledge creation, increases their participation and how they interact within the organization; identify the experiences and the ability to determine the terms of references. (Kim, K. Y. E. S. K.-Y et al, 2007) Analytic Hierarchical Processing (AHP) “is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology”.

مقاله سال 2016

1st International Conference on Applied Economics and Business

مهندسی مجدد فرآیند کسب وکار (BPR) بعنوان ابزار مدیریتی موثر در مقابله با تغییرات تکنولوژیکی و همچنین تغییرات بازاریابی در بازارهای رقابتی امروز ارائه می شود، که هزینه فعالیت ها در کل فرایندها یا سازمان ها را با آنالیز طراحی مجدد گردش کار و فرآیندهای داخل و خارج سازمان به حداقل می رساند. متاسفانه، مزایای استفاده از مهندسی مجدد فرایند کسب وکار و چگونگی پیاده سازی و نظارت بر آن در خطوط هوایی ایران شناخته شده نیست و حتی با توجه به نقش راهبردی و مهم این صنعت در اقتصاد کشور، هیچ تحقیق بنیادی و موثری در استفاده از این فرایند در این شرکت ها انجام نشده است. هدف اصلی از این مطالعه بررسی تاثیر عوامل فنی، عوامل انسانی و همچنین تاثیر تعدیل فرهنگ سازمانی در اجرای فرایند مهندسی مجدد کسب وکار در ایران ایر می باشد. روش تحقیق این مطالعه از منظر هدف آن اعمال می شود و این مطالعه توصیفی از نقطه نظر روش آن می باشد. جامعه آماری مطالعه شامل مدیران ارشد، مدیران میانی، مدیران عملیاتی و سرپرستان است و تعداد کلی آنها متشکل از 312 نفر می باشد. نتایج حاصل از آنالیز داده های آماری نشان می دهد که عوامل انسانی و عوامل فنی بر مهندسی مجدد فرایند کسب وکار در ایران ایر اثرگذار هستند. همچنین فرهنگ سازمای نیز تاثیر عوامل انسانی در پیاده سازی مهندسی مجدد فرایند کسبوکار در ایران ایر را تعدیل می کند.