The Role of Teams in Business Process Change

The concept of reengineering teams is not new to business process change practice and research. However, frameworks that describe the organisational changes that have to be undertaken in order to establish reengineering teams, in particular, are novel. By having such a framework, practitioners and academics alike can determine beforehand what to expect before the actual team is formed. This in turn allows organisations to prevent disastrous consequences, something that can occur if information is not available. Additionally, the chapter describes the characteristics that surround the planning and design of reengineering teams. This can be used as a suggestion for organisations in order to decide if they do have the appropriate numbers of individuals within a team. From these explanations it can then be stated that this chapter can serve as a directive that organisations undertaking business process change in the future can use as guiding information. INTRODUCTION The normative literature on business process change (BPC) emphasises the role of reengineering teams; however, when investigated in detail it can be found that there is minimal literature about their formation, tasks and so forth. In particular, when BPC was being introduced, Davenport (1993) and Hammer and Champy (1993) stressed that the implementation of BPC is better if a reengineering team is This chapter appears in the book, Knowledge and Business Process Management edited byVlatka Hlupic. Copyright © 2003, Idea Group Publishing. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA 17033, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com ITB8194 IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING