Description of the Readings

In his book Beyond Reengineering, Michael Hammer describes the process-centered organization, a radically new organizational form where the traditional roles of workers, managers, and functional departments are replaced by process performers, process owners and centers of excellence, respectively.

· Process performers are part of a cross-functional team responsible for executing a well-defined, end-to-end process serving a particular customer (external or internal). (See Hammer, Chp 3.) · Process owners are responsible for designing and evolving processes and helping process performers correct problems with the process as a whole. They also serve as an advocate for the process within the organization, e.g., to get needed resources. (See Hammer, Chp 5.) · Centers of excellence are the talent pool/skills bank for specific disciplines: engineering, product development, marketing, sales, customer service, information systems, accounting, etc. They are what is left of functional departments when the work has been moved into process teams. The centers are staffed by coaches, people with a combination of deep knowledge of their discipline and adept people skills. Coaches are responsible for anticipating the staffing needs of different processes, developing a supply of skilled individuals, allocating people to processes, developing and mentoring employees, and arbitrating, where necessary, to address individual performance problems. (Described in Hammer Chp 8, not assigned for this class.)

In the process-centered organization, the traditional responsibilities of the hierarchical manager or ÒbossÓ are dispersed: to the process performers themselves, in the sense they take professional-style responsibility for customer outcomes rather than a tasks; to the process ownerÑwho defines the work to be accomplished and broadly how the work should be done; to the coachÑwho hires, fires, develops and allocates personnel; and finally to the process team, since it is the team that has the greatest say in performance evaluations.

Written Assignment:

Do you think that the process-centered organization as envisioned by Hammer will become a pervasive model for manufacturing organizations over the next twenty years? What are its potential strengths and weaknesses relative to a well-run functional organization? Will continuing advances in IT encourage, discourage, or have no effect on adoption of the process-centered approach?

Please prepare a one page memo (350 words) outlining your conclusions and explaining your reasoning.