Negotiation in strategy making teams : group support systems and the process of cognitive change

This paper reports on the use of a Group Support System (GSS) to explore at a micro level some of the processes manifested when a group is negotiating strategy-processes of social and psychological negotiation. It is based on data from a series of interventions with senior management teams of three operating companies comprising a multi-national organization, and with a joint meeting subsequently involving all of the previous participants. The meetings were concerned with negotiating a new strategy for the global organization. The research involved the analysis of detailed time series data logs that exist as a result of using a GSS that is a reflection of cognitive theory

Assessing Business-IT Alignment Maturity

Strategic alignment focuses on the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the IT (Information Technology) and other functional organizations (e.g., finance, marketing, H/R, manufacturing). Therefore, alignment addresses both how IT is in harmony with the business, and how the business should, or could be in harmony with IT. Alignment evolves into a relationship where the function of IT and other business functions adapt their strategies together. Achieving alignment is evolutionary and dynamic. It requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and technical environments. Achieving and sustaining alignment demands focusing on maximizing the enablers and minimizing the inhibitors that cultivate alignment. The strategic alignment maturity assessment provides organizations with a vehicle to evaluate these activities. Knowing the maturity of its strategic choices and alignment practices make it possible for a firm to see where it stands and how it can improve. This paper discusses an approach for assessing the maturity of the business-IT alignment. Once maturity is understood, an organization can identify opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT

Modelling Inter-Organizational Business Processes Governance

Digital transformation requires decentralizing business process governance due to the increasing interdependencies of organizations and more complex business pipelines enabled by information technologies. We present a modelling approach to assist companies in their inter-organizational business process governance (IO-BPG). The results emerge from a design science research conducted with a major European telecommunications service provider. They include (1) the key domain attributes, (2) a domain-specific ontology, and (3) a BPMN extension instantiated in IO-BPG scenarios of Software-as-a-Service, covering structure, processes, and relational mechanisms. For theory, this paper extends the literature on business process governance with a modelling approach evaluated in one of the most regulated and dynamic economic sectors. For practice, our proposal may help appraise accountability, confidentiality, compliance, autonomy, authority, traceability, and collaboration configurations that are crucial to IO-BPG

Reducing the Gap Between Business and Information Systems Through Complex Event Processing

According to the Object Management Group, a rule is a proposition that is a claim of obligation or of necessity. The concept of rule is usually employed in the context of business process to manage companies operations. While a workflow is an explicit specification of tasks' execution flow, business rules only impose restrictions on the tasks' execution. This provides a great deal of flexibility for the process execution, since the stakeholders are free to choose an execution flow which does not violate the rules. The execution of a task in a process can be seen as the occurrence of an event, which may enable/disable the execution of some other tasks in the process. Event-driven programming is a paradigm in which the program control-flow is determined by the occurrence of events. The capacity to handle processes that are unpredictably non-linear and dynamic makes the event-driven paradigm an effective solution for the implementation of business rules. However, the connection between the business rules and their implementation through event-driven programming has been made in an ad-hoc and unstructured manner. This paper proposes a methodology to tackle such a problem by systematically moving from business rules described in natural language toward a concrete implementation of a business process. We use complex event processing (CEP) to implement the process. CEP relies on the event driven paradigm for monitoring and processing events. The methodology allows for the active participation of business people at all stages of the refinement process. Throughout the paper, we show how our methodology was employed to implement the operations of the World Bank

Classification Criteria for Governing the Implementation Process of Service-Oriented ERP Systems - An Analysis Based on New Institutional Economics

Service-oriented ERP systems promise to allow for a fine-grained alignment of IT with the specific functional requirements of an organization\u27s business processes. In this regard, studies particularly emphasize the potential to flexibly exchange services by means of market-based transactions. One important aspect widely neglected, however, is the endeavor of governing the implementation process of this new kind of information systems. Having applied New Institutional Economics, our research reveals that this implementation process, on the contrary, even calls for rather hierarchical modes of governance. However, different types of activities relevant to implementing a service-oriented system have to be taken into account. Hence, in this paper we present a set of criteria enabling organizations to classify these activities in more detail and to choose a suitable mode of governance. We demonstrate the approach by means of an example and indicate directions for future research

Sensemaking from Actions

This study presents a method to establish empirically what drives organization members in their day-to-day behavior. The method starts from the sense employees make of their own actions. The approach consists of two steps: qualitative laddering interviews to determine the most central means and ends that play a role in the sensemaking of organization members, and a follow-up survey to examine in depth the organizational means-end structure. The method was validated by relating the results to independently observed indicators of what guides organization members in their behavior. Apart from the deeper insight it provides in the forces that drive day-to-day behavior in an organization, the method also provides management with a practical tool for addressing employee motivation and for developing credible communication toward stakeholders.employee motivation;laddering;means-end analysis;organizational action;sensemaking

Forms of organizing: What is new and why?

This paper aims to further our understanding of new forms of organizing by asking and answering two related questions: What is new in forms of organizing? and Why is it so? It starts by examining the main forces that lead to the emergence and diffusion of new organizational arrangements, distinguishing between objective and subjective factors and pointing out the interplay between the two. Elaborating on these two groups of factors, the paper introduces two dimensions ‹flexibility and openness‹ on which a contingency analysis of new forms of organizing and a classification are built. Flexibility is associated with the question «How fast does the organization as a whole have to learn?», while openness is intended to measure the need for knowledge integration and the location of relevant knowledge. Having outlined the main trends in the development of organizational arrangements, the paper looks at some of the implications. The use of information and communication technologies, knowledge management, changes in human resource practices and social contract, and changes in management roles and careers are all seen as consequences of a new quest for openness and flexibility. All these considerations lead to the conclusion that, nowadays, changes in organizational patterns are radical, calling for a paradigm change that will facilitate, in a holistic manner, the adjustments that are needed in order to build and manage these organizations. Like any paradigm change, this requires a change in the mindset of the agents involved, especially the decision-makers.new forms of organizing; new organizational arrangements;