An investigation into the use of human resources factors to support business process reengineering implementation

Business process Reengineering (BPR) is a popular methodology used to plan and implement radical organizational change. However, many organizations attempting to implement BPR have reported failure to attain their goals. Many writers have implied that the high rate of reengineering failures may be attributable to a failure to properly support BPR implementation with appropriate human resources management (HRM) policies and practices. This study sought to determine how organizations undergoing BPR implementation utilized human resources policies and practices to support implementation efforts and to identify those policies and practices that appeared to be most important in achieving success.; This research is presented as a series of case studies, utilizing a qualitative approach and methodology, and examines six organizations undergoing reengineering implementation. Work processes were observed, archival information analyzed, and interviews conducted with employees at all levels of the organizations under study.; Results suggest that three specific HRM systems---communications, leadership, and vision---evolved further among organizations in this sample reporting BPR successes than other human resources systems. Changes in other HRM systems, such as team-based organization designs and substantive changes to organizational structure appeared to be evolving more slowly. There did not appear to be any evidence that of a strong association between the use made of reward, performance appraisal, or employee selection systems used and BPR success. Successful organizations in this sample were found to have typically focused on fulfilling technical training needs at the expense of developing other skills and knowledge generally thought necessary to succeed in collaborative, team-based organizations.; The organizations that reported successful BPR implementations were found to have made changes in individual HRM systems, rather than in entire portfolios of HRM systems. The pattern that emerged from this sample of organizations was one of making modest changes in a small number of their HRM systems rather than revolutionary changes to any one specific system.; In this study, the strategy of interest was Business Process Reengineering, but the same assertions regarding the use of HRM factors to support successful program implementations can be made for other, transformational change strategies.