TY - JOUR
T1 - Political maneuvering during business process transformation
T2 - A pluralist approach
AU - Müller, Sune Dueholm
AU - Mathiassen, Lars
AU - Saunders, Carol S.
AU - Kræmmergaard, Pernille
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - For years, managers have tried to improve organizational performance through business process transformation (BPT), and their experiences have informed IS research and practice. Although extant theory acknowledges the political nature of these dynamic transformation initiatives, researchers have yet to empirically investigate and theorize how organizational politics impacts BPT behaviors and outcomes. Drawing on a pluralist methodology, we present an embedded case study of a company-wide BPT project across four business units at the high-tech firm Terma. First, we apply different perspectives on organizational politics to develop detailed accounts of each business unit's response to the transformation initiative, which reveals four distinct patterns of BPT politics: “applying the hammer”, “struggling to engage”, “walking the talk”, and “keeping up appearances”. Next, we combine the empirical findings with extant literature to theorize how transformation agents and process users engage in politics during BPT implementation. As a result, our research leverages a pluralist approach to show how alternative political perspectives and forms of politics can help managers maneuver BPT initiatives in their roles as transformation agents and process users.
AB - For years, managers have tried to improve organizational performance through business process transformation (BPT), and their experiences have informed IS research and practice. Although extant theory acknowledges the political nature of these dynamic transformation initiatives, researchers have yet to empirically investigate and theorize how organizational politics impacts BPT behaviors and outcomes. Drawing on a pluralist methodology, we present an embedded case study of a company-wide BPT project across four business units at the high-tech firm Terma. First, we apply different perspectives on organizational politics to develop detailed accounts of each business unit's response to the transformation initiative, which reveals four distinct patterns of BPT politics: “applying the hammer”, “struggling to engage”, “walking the talk”, and “keeping up appearances”. Next, we combine the empirical findings with extant literature to theorize how transformation agents and process users engage in politics during BPT implementation. As a result, our research leverages a pluralist approach to show how alternative political perspectives and forms of politics can help managers maneuver BPT initiatives in their roles as transformation agents and process users.
KW - Business process transformation
KW - Embedded case study
KW - Organizational politics
KW - Pluralist approach
KW - Power
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016642125&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85016642125
SN - 1536-9323
VL - 18
SP - 173
EP - 205
JO - Journal of the Association for Information Systems
JF - Journal of the Association for Information Systems
IS - 3
M1 - 3
ER -