Wednesday, December 16, 2009

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering,

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts?

• Business Process Reengineering

1. According to Wikipedia; it is an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations.
2. It is one approach for redesigning the way work is done to better support the organization’s mission and reduce cost.
3. It starts with a high level assessment of the organization’s mission, strategic goals and customer needs.
an approach aiming at improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across organizations. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a "clean slate" perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve how they conduct business.
When a business is in the midst of increasing their productivity, it faces different kinds of organizational change. There are lots of ways in order for a business to make it more efficient and to improve operational flexibility. In the spectrum of organizational change, the most essential type of change is paradigm shift which is the radical conceptualization of the nature of the business process and the organization.

• Automation
Based on Wikipedia definition; it is the of control systems such as computers to control industrial machinery and processes, reducing the need for human intervention. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the physical requirements of work, automation greatly reduces the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well.
Rationalization of procedures is the process of constructing a logical justification for a belief, decision, action or lack thereof that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. It is a defense mechanism in which unacceptable behaviors or feelings are explained in a rational or logical manner; this avoids the true explanation of the behavior or feeling in question.

• Paradigm Shift
1. It is also referred to as scientific revolution.
2. It is a change from one way of thinking to another. It’s a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of change.
3. Thomas Kuhn said “the successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual development pattern of mature science”.

Paradigms are central to human culture. They are learned, taught, passed on and often serve to define membership in a culture or subculture. "The passing of paradigms within a society is, in effect the process of acculturation and socialization. Paradigms influence how we govern ourselves, how our public institutions are configured and operate, our economic systems and institutions, the structures of our organizations, and how we manage people and other resources. Imagine the whole system of thought being change. In business, this means a lot of changes on their current paradigm.


Base on the above definitions, I could say that the most radical type of change is the paradigm shift because this kind of change greatly changes a certain status to another status. Let say in an organization, a paradigm shift is a total renovation or change of the whole organization.

Change is constant. Many have changed for the better but others are for worse. Others choose to be adaptive than to be predictive because they have this thought that not all things can be predicted. And it is all because life is a constant change. But for me, I am not really into adaptive side; I choose to be predictive rather. Change makes me nervous at times and I am not that person who can easily adapt but not quite long which is I know wrong but still I am working on it.

The lowest in both risk and reward is automation, which entails that even though there is lesser risk in this type of change, the rewards that you get are also directly proportional to the risk and therefore are also small. However, if we look at the very top of the spectrum, we can find paradigm shift, which has both high risks and high rewards. From this and from the definition of radical alone, I can deduce that paradigm shift is the most radical organizational change. Why? First of all, paradigm shift involves rethinking the whole nature of the business, a complete re-conception of how the system should function. In other words, it offers companies a whole new perspective about their business processes and allows them to rework everything from top to bottom. It brings about a "radical" change in the organization's way of thinking and replaces the old way of thinking with a newer, more insightful idea.
Even though it takes a larger risk than the other type of change it has become the most widely applied organizational change to many other organizations for it changes the overall business process thus making a better impact if it is a success. Although business reengineering is also one radical type of change because this approach deals also in redesigning the way work is done in order to better support the organization’s mission and to reduce cost which has the objective of radical improvement in performance and not just incremental improvement, the term paradigm shift is still the most radical type for this kind of approach has found uses in other situation, representing the concept of a major change in a certain thought-pattern.

If this kind of organizational change will be properly implemented and is put into better application by the people in the organization it can create a big radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems, replacing the former way of organizing with a radically different way of thinking. Through this change, it makes an influential technique and a start of something new to improve profits and business operations. Because when we have the focus on making efficient business with the most profitable segment we can make it grow unpredictably fast simply by making a general change in the organization and the best and most radical type of change is paradigm shift.

All types of change could give an organization a disruption but in two most common types – the automation and rationalization of procedures, usually, it can be managed. For the rest, especially the highly disruptive, most dangerous and most radical type of change which is paradigm shifting, it needs a lot of care and should be done well. And if done well, it can give tremendous rewards.
The most radical type of change in the spectrum of organizational change is the paradigm shift. Paradigm shift is a total change on organization. Unlike on the business reengineering that changes a portion of the organization to improve the cost, quality and service. A paradigm shift involves rethinking the nature of the business, the organization. It is a complete reconception of how the system should function. Using this method will take high risks and give a high or great reward for the organization if it is a success. When if it is a failure it would results the organization will go down or bankruptcy or worst the organization will be closed.
The spectrum of organizational change is composed of four parts, arranged from lowest to highest in terms of both risks and rewards: automation, rationalization of procedures, business re-engineering, and paradigm shift. Meanwhile, the term radical is synonymous with essential, major, thorough, sweeping, and drastic. So when we say radical organizational change, we are referring to a type of organizational change that will bring about largely significant and drastic changes.
Radical means departing markedly from the usual or customary and it also means extreme while paradigm shift means a new perspective on things. It is sometimes known as extraordinary science or revolutionary science (Thomas Khun). A paradigm shift is a radical change of pace in our paradigms, a fundamental change in our unconscious view of reality. It is a transformation of the way humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. It can be a national or international shift, and could have dramatic effects, whether positive or negative, on the way we live our lives today and in the future.

among the four types of organizational change, the most radical type is paradigm shifts. The most common is automation and also the easiest. Automation and rationalization of procedures are slow moving and slow changing strategies. These two types of change carry low rewards but offer little risk. In contrast, business reengineering and paradigm shifts are faster; carry high rewards but offer high chances of failure.
Automation deals with the use of Information Technology (IT) in order to speed up the process of a certain task. Rationalization of procedures is the reformation of operating procedures, removal of bottlenecks to make the operating procedures of the organization more efficient. Business reengineering is the redesigning of the business processes to improve measure of performance while paradigm shifts is the re-conceptualization or change of the nature of the business and the organization itself.
Organizations could have major disruption when it is done. Although we could say that it is very dangerous because it talks about extreme change and taking high risk but still many of the organizations use it and also business reengineering. Why extreme change? As defined above, it is because it deals with changing the very nature of the business, the structure of the organization and it also deals with new products or services. Same as other individuals, organizations use paradigm shifts as their strategy to change in order to stay competitive. I have read from an article that because of the global economic pressure, organizations realized that they have to take on the challenges to meet the demands of their shareholders.

A Paradigm Shift is when a significant change happens usually from one fundamental view to a different view. In most cases, some type of major discontinuity occurs as well. It could have dramatic effects whether positive or negative. Therefore, I think among the organizational changes, the paradigm shift would have greater impact and would be more vital among others. According to Kuhn, paradigm shift is revolutionary science. “Revolutionary science is usually unsuccessful, and only rarely leads to new paradigms. When they are successful they lead to large scale changes in the scientific worldview.” If it would fall short, then it could entirely cause failure to the organization. It could greatly affect an organization since wide changes is being employed in this change. A thorough thought over about implicating this would be considered and required.
Revolutionary measures are of constant in an organization. In implementing developments and improvements, changes should be put through. Perhaps the most asked but least answered question in business today is “What can we do to make our business survive and grow?” The world is rapidly changing into something too hard to easily predict, with a hundred opportunities and pitfalls passing by every moment.

We are moving at an accelerated rate of speed, our knowledge and awareness expands and our state of thinking and ideas is transforming and transcending so as the differences to be made for the expansion and progression of the organization’s state.
Paradigm Shift is a popular, or perhaps, not so popular shift or transformation of the way we Humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. It can be a national or international shift, and could have dramatic effects -- whether positive or negative -- on the way we live our lives today and in the future. I think what makes this different among the four is the fact that it adapts to the changes of the world in reality. The organization will base its ideas and decision on what is important on the current or present time. Unlike the automation that merely uses machines or computers denying the existence of human who is the most critical part of an organization.

Although major risk also awaits in this type of change, its worth the gamble for there also waits major rewards. Anyway, li When a business is in the midst of increasing their productivity, it faces different kinds of organizational change. There are lots of ways in order for a business to make it more efficient and to improve operational flexibility. In the spectrum of organizational change, the most essential type of change is paradigm shift which is the radical conceptualization of the nature of the business process and the organization.
fe is a gamble itself. You just have to play the cards well.

if we compare paradigm shift to business re-engineering, which is the third highest in risk and reward, business re-engineering [and even the other two] focuses only on a particular area of the business organization. While they are coupled with lower risks, the rewards you get are also lower. I think this is a major difference with paradigm shift where you have to be willing to take higher risks in order to attain higher rewards. This alone brings to mind the word drastic, a synonym of radical. It is in fact risky, however, if you can avoid or be prepared for the risks, then you will surely achieve the highest rewards and overcome the highest risks.
Typically, the concept of organizational change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person, modifying a program, etc. Examples of organization-wide change might include a change in mission,restructuring operations (e.g., restructuring to self-managed teams, layoffs, etc.), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, "rightsizing", new programs such as Total Quality Management, re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to organizational transformation. Often this term designates a fundamental and radical reorientation in the way the organization operates.
Typically there are strong resistances to change. People are afraid of the unknown. Many people think things are already just fine and don't understand the need for change. Many are inherently cynical about change, particularly from reading about the notion of "change" as if it's a mantra. Many doubt there are effective means to accomplish major organizational change. Often there are conflicting goals in the organization, e.g., to increase resources to accomplish the change yet concurrently cut costs to remain viable. Organization-wide change often goes against the very values held dear by members in the organization, that is, the change may go against how members believe things should be done. That's why much of organizational-change literature discusses needed changes in the culture of the organization, including changes in members' values and beliefs and in the way they enact these values and beliefs.
Even though it takes a larger risk than the other type of change it has become the most widely applied organizational change to many other organizations for it changes the overall business process thus making a better impact if it is a success. Although business reengineering is also one radical type of change because this approach deals also in redesigning the way work is done in order to better support the organization’s mission and to reduce cost which has the objective of radical improvement in performance and not just incremental improvement, the term paradigm shift is still the most radical type for this kind of approach has found uses in other situation, representing the concept of a major change in a certain thought-pattern.
Significant organizational change really occurs in a business when it changes its overall strategy for success or wants to change the very nature by which it operates. It also occurs when an organization evolves through various life cycles, just like people must successfully evolve through life cycles. For organizations to develop, they often must undergo significant change at various points in their development. Although significant organizational change is one of the most difficult strategies to implement, engaging such change is also very rewarding.

If this kind of organizational change will be properly implemented and is put into better application by the people in the organization it can create a big radical change in personal beliefs, complex systems, replacing the former way of organizing with a radically different way of thinking. Through this change, it makes an influential technique and a start of something new to improve profits and business operations. Because when we have the focus on making efficient business with the most profitable segment we can make it grow unpredictably fast simply by making a general change in the organization and the best and most radical type of change is paradigm shift.

Among the four types of change; Automation, Rationalization of procedures, Business process reengineering, and Paradigm Shift, I think it is very evident that paradigm shift is the most important one. It is the best choice among the four. To support this, let us get to know more about paradigm shift. As what I have read, we may think as a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. In laymen terms, Paradigm Shift is a popular, or perhaps, not so popular shift or transformation of the way we Humans perceive events, people, environment, and life altogether. It can be a national or international shift, and could have dramatic effects -- whether positive or negative -- on the way we live our lives today and in the future. I think what makes this different among the four is the fact that it adapts to the changes of the world in reality. The organization will base its ideas and decision on what is important on the current or present time. Unlike the automation that merely uses machines or computers denying the existence of human who is the most critical part of an organization.

Although major risk also awaits in this type of change, its worth the gamble for there also waits major rewards. Anyway, life is a gamble itself. You just have to play the cards well
Sources:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/radical
http://www.managementhelp.org/mgmnt/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation

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