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This paper examines three business process re‐engineering (BPR) projects, one conducted in the private sector and two conducted in the UK's higher education sector. The broad aim of the paper is to compare public and private sector applications of BPR. The paper begins with a brief overview of BPR and identifies three unresolved issues from the literature (the choice of modelling techniques used to describe business processes, whether to use generic or context specific process maps and whether to aim for radical or incremental change). An overview of each project is given and the paper considers how each of the unresolved theoretical issues was addressed in the cases before making a public vs private sector comparison. The paper illustrates differences and similarities between private sector usage of BPR and the two public sector examples given here and concludes that the techniques of BPR are highly applicable in the public sector.

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This paper aims to enable the operations management community to engage with concepts from the field of complexity theory and apply them to the issue of organisational transformation. It begins by reviewing existing work on strategic change, then provides an overview of complexity theory to show how the conditioned emergence model was developed. A brief statement on method follows, which describes our research process in terms of mode 2 knowledge production. An illustrative case study is then presented and is used to highlight aspects of the model and the overlaps and differences between conditioned emergence and other approaches. The paper concludes that organisational transformation can be viewed as an emergent process which can be accessed and influenced through three interacting gateways, i.e. order generating rules, disequilibrium and positive feedback. Finally, an appendix is included which focuses specifically on the issue of the research process. Here, it is argued that calls for managerially‐relevant research will be best met through more widespread adoption of mode 2 as an approach.

Attempts to contextualize the current high level of interest in business process re‐engineering (BPR) in UK business and industry. Reviews a number of surveys of UK business involvement with BPR and suggests long‐term secular trends in the business environment of Western firms that seem likely to have encouraged its use. Presents a brief history of the development of BPR to date, examining some of the seminal works on BPR and highlighting the major debates currently found in the literature. Examines the novelty of BPR in relation to other, more established, management approaches, with particular emphasis on the similarities and differences between total quality management and BPR. From case studies reported by UK businesses in the literature and popular press, concludes that: a large number of applications are found in the financial services sector; there is a notable absence of BPR case studies in SMEs; and there is a lack of information available about the failure rates of BPR projects in UK businesses. Identifies several areas where further research is required. Concludes that BPR addresses the need for established enterprises to move to a new organizational paradigm, from one focused on functions to one focused on processes. This need to change has been brought about by the advancing capabilities of information technology, increased levels of competition, the increasing sophistication of consumers and the threats posed by new entrants who have already adopted radically different modes of operation. Since these forces for change appear to be long‐run tendencies in developed economies, BPR cannot be viewed as a passing fad.

Annotation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between management education, the performance of German engineering enterprises and the strategic knowledge status of the executives running those enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based upon the results of an online/posted self‐administered questionnaire conducted within Germany, augmented by micro case studies.FindingsFindings suggest that the curricula in German Engineering Faculties fail to fully embrace business and management studies, in particular strategic management which has virtually no presence. Engineers dominate senior management positions within the German machinery and equipment sector yet they display limited knowledge of strategic management tools. There is also evidence that links performance with the application of management knowledge.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to senior executives within German SMEs from the machinery and equipment sector. It is likely that the findings would be applicable throughout the German engineering industry; however, generalisability to other countries may be limited. Only a single year's performance (2007) was considered and this is also a limitation of the study. This was mitigated by a request that anomalies be noted, such as extraordinary write offs or a windfall profit, within the year in question, this was then taken into account during the analysis.Practical implicationsBased on the findings it is suggested that German faculties of engineering should enhance and expand management education, particularly strategic management, thus enhancing future performance potential within German SMEs.Originality/valueThis paper examines the level of management education attained by senior engineering executives with a key economic industrial sector in Germany, as such it is one of few such studies which investigates the link between management education and performance.