Business process re-engineering—A discredited vocabulary?

摘要

Business process re-engineering (BPR) literature has demonstrated over the past 5 years how significant is the potential of BPR in keeping businesses competitive. However, a tremendous variation in the vocabulary used in the literature has blurred the meaning of re-engineering and a high level of misconception, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation has been identified during an investigation at three British and three Brazilian companies. Although, the spoken languages in the two countries are completely distinct, the root of the problems concerning BPR are exactly the same. Directors, managers, workers, and the authors of BPR literature all seem to be working with completely different mind sets. The evidence reported in this paper suggests that the credibility of BPR as a management change tool is becoming weaker, and if no urgent action taken to unify vocabulary and definition, then BPR is predestined to become another has-been theory in the history of management.