Business process redesign: Radical and evolutionary change

Abstract

We explore the nature of change when firms engage in business process redesign (i.e., reengineering). According to the proponents, business process redesign is an all-or-nothing affair. Numerous books and articles on the topic promulgate the notion that reengineering is nothing short of a revolution. But the rhetoric can be daunting—and may mislead managers planning to reengineer their organizations. Our field research on 15 business process redesign projects suggests that only one of the two phases of reengineering effort needs to be revolutionary for the project to reach field implementation. Reengineering involves both the design—the blueprint for change—and the implementation of those plans. Reengineering design phase must have elements of radical change. The radicalness instills motivation in ways that more evolutionary projects cannot. But as companies implement the plans, they can—and many do—use a more evolutionary change process, and still gain effective results. Our results provide support to the emerging body of literature that argues that organizations combine evolutionary and radical change harmoniously.