BUSINESS PROCESS CREATION
Business Process Creation Dissertation Proposal
My concern for this project is the dynamic nature of change at the level of the organization. The project will research how business processes are created when one organization aims to modernize many organizations by replacing manual work with information systems. Recently conducted studies in different industries indicate a rise in long term efficiency in the organization when a business adopts information system to support daily operations and administration. Adopting Information Systems is a way to prosper and stay afloat in business as well as being a very strong motivation for the individual organization to modernize. When organizations do not modernize, this decision is often based off of old habit and feelings about the status quo. Unexpected outcomes can happen as a result of the attempt to modernize through ICT, which is a process not yet studied sufficiently. The focus of this study is to understand how an organization decides to react to an initiative to change from another organization and what business processes are created in doing. How does an organizational field replace manual work with information systems and thereby modernize?
I will undertake a literature review which will consider what to expect with organizations and information systems. It is to be determined if a difference can be found when comparing very traditional companies, where technology is rarely used, with companies having a widespread use of technology. The practical issues such as how to select the software and hardware required for interviewing and processing the data and how to produce transcription protocols will be more apparent than how to craft ethical protocols and obtain approval, as the subject matter is not controversial. Semi-structured interviews will be undertaken in order to locate knowledge about the research question about actors who have not modernized and what are their observations from within the context of industry networks. Interview questions comprise e.g.:
What kind of information systems and technology are you using in your daily work?
Have you been asked to adopt information systems by your customer, supplier, or other stakeholder?
If yes, how is your relationship with the initiative taker? If yes, how is your level of trust in the initiative taker?
Has information systems changed the way you work? o If yes, in what way? If no, why not?
If yes, would you say the change was a success?
Have you received reductions in cost as a result of sales?
What kind of expectations do you have about replacing your manual work routines with an information system?
Are you aware of colleagues in the industry who have replaced their manual work routines with an information system?
If yes, why do you think they did it? And if no, why do you think they haven’t done it?
How is the quality of the information systems you are using?
Has the information system fully replaced the knowledge you have in the field? In other words, the company reports and any other secondary data which will be retrieved from multiple sources depending on the empirical setting which we decide on.
Results
The study will produce memos in combination with open coding until closure is rached. Memos will aggregate thoughts and ideas of the researcher while work is moving forward and can be refound to guide and redirect the research (Goulding, 2002). Collecting and analyzing data are carried about as simultaenous parallel processes. Results are found when analyze the data initially collected and are then used to direct the data collection moving forward. Initial data collection is used to theoretical sampling and which reflects emerging theory and developing categories. One direct consequence of sampling theoretically is the inability of the researcher to decide how many people to interview before the research is undertaken (Goulding, 2002). There are relationships which emerge between codes and from open coding which then form concepts. Theoretical coding procedures must then be grounded in data. Taking a constant comparison of what categories result from open coding, incidents of data must be compared to explore likenesses and differences. Comparison on a constant basis is a process ongoing when administering research grounded in theory which leads to identifying relationships between significant incidents. Existing literature will provide a starting place to compare existing data with data already grounded. Existing literature will improve the theoretical level and refine construct definitions.
Conclusion
This study focuses its interest on organizational change and how business processes are created (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2009). Business Process creation can be understood in the context of institutional theory as a basis of institutionalized arrangements. (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2009). By replacing procedures of work in an organizational field with information systems, institutional change can be seen. This study will focus on how actors themselves experience a change in the business process creation sequence. Therefore, this study will use an interpretive methodology in order to understand and frame shifts in meaning values and understanding. This may be done using traditional techniques in ethnography, as well as participant observations, discourse anlayses, cultural framing analysis and content analyses.
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