HUMAN RESOURCES ISSUES IN BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Every business as a set of inter –related process. Processes are composed of sub-processes, which are in turn made up of activities each activity also has a number of tasks under it. It is therefore on these premises that business process reengineering (BPR) has evolved to integrate (or eliminate where appropriate) the multiplicity of business processes with the primary focus on customer satisfaction as the end result.

Basically, the purpose of business process reengineering is to improve the quality of services by spending less time on bureaveratic rules and procedures breaking barriers between departments substituting paper handling with information technology and organizing work processes to effectively serve the customers. If we discover that markets are becoming more turbulent and the rate of change is accelerating it must therefore  accepted that effective business process will be crucial for organizational effectiveness. In times    of market turbulent, it is not market position or string financial base that gives competitive advantage, but the ability to move quickly into market and develop effective products and /or services. 

The competitive environment of business organizations is increasingly growing to strength and Nigeria is not an exception there is no disputing then fact that globalization trend, commerce ecosystems, digital market, and market integration have led  to a significant increase in the strength and threats of competition among organization within and beyond international boundaries these organizations is increasing growing to strength and Nigeria is not an exception there is no disputing the fact that globalization trend, commerce ecosystems, digital markets, and market integration have led to a signification increate in the strength and threats of competition among organization within and beyond international boundaries these organization were thus face with the challenge of how best to restructure  themselves one effective remedy was to improve the flow of resources and information though reengineering their business process.

Reengineering involves redefining the processes and pattern of relationship connecting  organization members with people outside  the organization. This concept becomes necessary when in spirte of the fact that individual jobs are well defined and performed, the sum effect on other people is insufficient for the organization and unsatisfactory   to customers. At the heart of (BPR) is the notion of discontinuous thinking of recognizing and breaking away from traditional rules and fundamental assumption that underline the design of an organization. It proposes that an organization should fundamentally re-examine the may it does business so as to produce dramatic  improvements in performance thus breakthroughs in performance cannot be automating existing processes but by challenging old  assumption and old rule  that made business under perform in the first place (Davenport, H 2001).

What makes reengineering different from other process improvement initiatives is that it is seen a more radical change in business than previous methods of improving business performance perhaps, the most important and innovative aspect of business process  reengineering is that it requires organizations to improve processes rather than functional activities than when talking about reengineering, the concepts that everyone relates most is the notion or radical change and redesign, through still fundamental   to reengineering but no longer the most import ant aspects, of reengineering is the notion of a process oriented organization (Hammer and Champy, 2001)

However in using BPR to renew redefined organizational  focus,  a common mistake by many organizations is their inability to make people the  pivot of such as transformation exercise. Reason could be the organization’s deviously pursuing aims like   restructuring and downsizing. Which are not intrinsreally about BPR. To overcome such misnomers, it pertinent for organizations to  clarify what implementing BPR can be expected to deliver  and exert much   effort in changing employers behavior manager should therefore communicate openly with employees by giving them sound reasons and explanations for the new design and  involve them adequate in the transformation exercise (O’ brein and Wainswoorth 2000).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

        Globalization and its off spring hyper competition rapid advances in technology changing workforce uncertain political environment and fact product life  cycles have necessitated that organizations change their usual  or traditional way of doing business as a result, organization have adopt and maintained organ structures so as to  adapt rapidly to the dynamic business environment   among the stage deployed by many organizations business process reengineering has emerged as the most effective means of maintain strong marked position by developing effective predicts and services there by remaining competitive BPR achieves this by radically replacing bureaucratic rules and procedures with advanced technology. This a well defined process that is supported with appropriate information technology is capable of reducing cycle time and wasters drastically while delivering desired  output in its utmost quality.

        It is therefore, but unthinkable that such a strategy will impact the major variables, of an organization, namely, process people technology  and materials. Among these variables, organization have been the most difficult variable to manipulate when a transformation initiative such as BPR is proposed aspect is referred to as the human resource issues in business processes reengineer. To understand the problem very and gain credence to its solution, these issues are divided into nature and impact of human resources issues in BPR

        The nature of human resource issues in BPR refers to the totality of the human and organizational elements that accompany reengineering. A good understanding of these issues will and management in evolving measures of dealing with them appropriately. A step further is to determined the role or rather the impact of  these issues on the proposed change. Attempt by many organizations to reengineer their processes failed because   of the adverse impact and eventual resistance of the change by the organizational people. To data resistance to change and organizational cultural barriers have been pinpoint as the most challenging human resource issues in BPR.

        In the same vain, reengineering have implications on reward systems and leadership styles in the organization. Training and development become important issues as new technical team, strategic  and managerial skills are inevitably needed to be acquired by the workforce on order to work effectively in the new work processes. There is also a host of other human resource issue, that must be addressed so that the effort and resources of the proposed change are not jeopardized.

        This study therefore sets  out to evaluate critically the implementation  of BPR at shell petroleum development company so as to determine the nature impact and importance of human resources to a successful implementation of BPR, in order to achieve a thorough investigation or these problems, a set of research questions are hereunder formulated from the main problems to take care of these issues discretely.

 PURPOSE  OF THE STUDY

        The research intends to undertake a critical evaluation of the implementation of business process reengineering with. The aim of delineating the nature and importance of human resource that accompany BPR,  this he, does by making comparative references to shell petroleum development company  (SPDC), in other word, the researcher has the following objectives.

i.             To correlate (If possible) organization culture and employee resistance to change in an organization.

ii.            To determine the impact of organizational culture and resistance to change on implementation of BPR.

iii.          To evaluate the effectiveness of open communication, teamwork on an employee involvement in overcoming resistance to change and other cultural barriers that impede BPR implementation.

iv.          To proffer the level of employee skills competence, motivation, and development required to sustain a reengineering programme.

v.           Finally, to make recommendation on how to undertake more research studies so as to increase knowledge and understanding of the subject.]

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In this period of turbulent economic environment, cut-throat competition and globalization trend, many organizations have resorted to reengineering their processes so as to survive and compete globally in the carte improvary business environments. Greater  attention has been on redesigning process and the embaying information technology without recognizing the crucial rule of human issues to such a transformation process (Ezigb. 2020) therefore the significance of this study lies in the fact that.

(i)          This will interest the change management teams of shell petroleum development company LTD in improvement on the existing situations. Business process reengineering is a continuous improvement on existing situation  thus the study suggest alternative  effective approved aches to managing  human resources issues in BPR.

(ii)         It is hoped that useful decisions could be arrived at by organizations contemplating BPR implementation of the suggestions and recommendations of this study are followed factors responsible for high rate, attributable to human and organization issues were highlighted and effective approaches for managing effective approaches for managing them were extensively discussed.

(iii)        The study could also be beneficial to academic in disseminating knowledge about the subject widely as the study recommends that through academic research in this area is imperative if a deeper understanding and knowledge of human resource issues in BPR are to be attained

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study cover human resource issues in business process re-engineering using Shell Petroleum Development Company as the case study.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

        This work contains certain operational and technical terms have different meaning, are regards their usage in this study, the researcher attempts to defined these terms introduction have standard definitions and will be rights,  quoted.

1.     Business process reengineering BPR is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business process so as to achieve dramatic improvements in business outcomes such as cost quality, service and speed (Hammer, M, and Champy, 1993).

2.     Resistance to change refers to both emotional and behavioural response to real or imagined changes in the work processes.

3.     Organizational culture is the share value attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions that shape behavior and guide actions of people working in an organization.

4.     Teamwork is the collaborative efforts of people to achieve common objectives.

5.     Development refers to the on-going training and education aimed at preparing employees for future jobs and roles.

6.     Human  resource issues consist of those factors and matters that directly and indirectly concern. Influence, and impact people in the workplace.

           These terms defined was done so as to eliminate any misconception or ambiguity, on  the par of those who may come in contact with the problem in future. It affords them the opportunity to understand the contextual meaning and these selected terms in this work.