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Herkness, W. L., Kettinger, W. J., and Segars, A. H. 1996. "Sustaining Process Improvement
and Innovation in the Information Services Function: Lessons Learned at the Bose Corporation,"
MIS Quarterly(20:3), pp. 349-368.
Orchestrating programs of organizational transformation that result in sustained process
improvement represents a difficult managerial challenge. Yet, ever-changing customer
requirements, electronic partnerships, and increasingly complex intraorganizational
arrangements are forcing many well-established firms to transform themselves from
function-based forms of organization into process-based systems of managerial, task,
and evaluative arrangements. Through a program of managed transformation, the Information
Services (IS) function at Bose Corporation has realized dramatic improvements in the
delivery of information products/services and is now "charting the course" for a sustained
process management view that will define and measure business relationships well into
the next century. In contrast to many well-publicized programs of change, the drive
toward sustained process improvement and innovation by Bose IS resembles an evolutionary
model of organizational learning and information sharing rather than a revolutionary
model of immediate and drastic transformation. This study describes the defining stages,
key events, and obstacles of the road traveled by Bose IS in transforming itself from
a corporate utility into an enterprise-wide source of process innovation and improvement.
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