Organization Design As a Groupware-Supported Team Process
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Organization Design as a Groupware-supported Team Process GroupOrga — Participative and Distributed Organization Design for Office Information and Workflow Management Systems Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Business Administration, Business Computing, International Business Studies and Economics of the University of Paderborn by Dipl.-Wirt. Inform. Marcus Ott Paderborn 1998 Organization Design as a Groupware-supported Team Process GroupOrga — Participative and Distributed Organization Design for Office Information and Workflow Management Systems Dem Fachbereich 5 — Wirtschaftswissenschaften — der Universität-Gesamthochschule Paderborn zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines DOKTORS DER WIRTSCHAFTSWISSENSCHAFTEN (Dr. rer. pol.) vorgelegte Dissertation von Dipl.-Wirt. Inform. Marcus Ott Paderborn 1998 This thesis is dedicated to Dörte for all the support and encouragement she has given me. There are not enough words. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Dr. Ludwig Nastansky, Professor of Information Management, for providing the opportunity to do Ph.D. research at the University of Paderborn. Thank you for supporting this research and supervising this thesis. To my colleagues at the Department for Information Management & Office Systems and the students of the GroupOrga project team for providing the intellectual foundation upon which I drew. Very often you helped me at one time or another to find some of the most obscure references. Special thanks for your fruitful discussions of the ideas and concepts presented in this thesis. To Yuko Sakamoto for proof-reading, offering advice on style, and commenting on the dissertation. Modern information technology, such as e-mail and the Internet, as well as a good sense of collaboration and teamwork helped bridge the distance between California, USA and Germany. To my parents for your love and best wishes. You provided me with the driving force and the support needed to complete my task. Thank you. Finally, my most sincere thanks go to Dörte. Not only were you a great help, but you have stuck with me through all of this and I am deeply grateful. An uncountable number of thanks go to you. ABSTRACT This dissertation describes a vision, concept and prototype technology that supports organization design as an ongoing group process. In particular, it is concerned with the design of organizational models for office and workflow management systems. The paradigm, which shares many of the change process attributes prescribed by the participative management and sociotechnical system design, defines organization design as an organic process potentially involving everyone in the organization and those significantly associated with the organization. Such an understanding is promoted by a formal enterprise model which covers the different facets of an organization that can be modeled, such as the processes, the information, and the organizational structure. This model, representing the circumstances of an enterprise, tends to be large and complex. It should also be continuously evolving to reflect the dynamic nature of the enterprise. GroupOrga also describes a prototype technology that supports organization design based on groupware technology. The technology consists of various integrated pieces, such as interactive, graphical tools for generating design descriptions, and multi-user, team-oriented database applications that are replicated between various locations. CONTENTS Chapter 1 - Introduction....................................................................................1 1.1 Scope and Research Objective of this Dissertation ....................................................2 1.2 Embedment in Existing Workflow and Office Projects .............................................4 1.3 Organization of this Dissertation ................................................................................5 Chapter 2 - Fundamentals and Terms ...............................................................7 2.1 Clarification of Relevant Concepts.............................................................................7 2.1.1 The Team and its Work: Teamwork?..................................................................8 2.1.1.1 Organization of Teamwork..........................................................................8 2.1.1.2 Computer-supported Teamwork..................................................................9 2.1.1.3 Communication, Collaboration, and Coordination for Teamwork .............10 2.1.2 Innovative Groupware Systems...........................................................................13 2.1.2.1 The Term "Groupware"...............................................................................14 2.1.2.2 Groupware Support for Teamwork .............................................................14 2.1.2.3 The Technological Perspective of Groupware ............................................15 2.1.3 Groupware in Learning Organizations................................................................20 2.1.4 Office Management Systems...............................................................................21 2.1.4.1 Office Perspectives......................................................................................22 2.1.4.2 Applications for Office Management..........................................................23 2.1.4.3 Current Office Management Approaches....................................................24 2.1.4.4 Distributed Office Management..................................................................26 2.1.4.5 Innovative Approaches to Office Management...........................................27 2.1.5 Workflow Management Systems ........................................................................28 2.1.5.1 Business Process Reengineering or Workflow Management......................28 2.1.5.2 Workflow Management and Supporting Systems.......................................30 2.1.5.3 The Workflow Management Coalition Reference Model ...........................33 2.1.5.4 An Important Concern: Flexibility in WfMS ..............................................34 2.1.6 Designing Organizations: Organization and Design...........................................37 2.1.6.1 Terminology ................................................................................................37 2.1.6.2 Organization Design....................................................................................39 2.1.6.3 More Recent Forms of Organization Design...............................................40 2.2 Practical Foundations of the GroupOrga Project ........................................................42 X GROUPORGA: ORGANIZATION DESIGN AS A GROUPWARE-SUPPORTED TEAM PROCESS 2.2.1 The Groupware Platform Lotus Notes for Teamwork.........................................42 2.2.2 The Office Management System "GroupOffice".................................................44 2.2.3 "GroupFlow" for Structured Workflow Management Tasks...............................45 Chapter 3 - Problem Definition.........................................................................49 3.1 Situation of the Organization ......................................................................................49 3.2 Technology-based Need for Modeling Organizational Structures ..............................54 3.2.1 Integration of Workflow IT and Organizational Structure ..................................55 3.2.2 Focus on Flexible Organizational Subsystems for WfM.....................................56 3.2.3 A Data Model for WfM and Office Management Systems .................................57 3.2.4 Modeling Organizational Structures on Distributed Platforms ...........................58 3.2.5 Tool Support for the Organization Design Process .............................................59 3.2.6 Information Technology Reshapes Organizations...............................................60 3.3 Process-oriented Organization Design as a Goal ........................................................61 3.4 Analysis of Traditional Methods of Organization Design ..........................................62 3.4.1 A Look at Organization Theories Literature........................................................63 3.4.2 Problems with Current Organization Design Practices .......................................66 3.4.2.1 Design Perspective of a Single Person.........................................................67 3.4.2.2 Application of Formalized Approaches.......................................................68 3.4.2.3 Formally Documented Structures vs. Informal Reality ...............................68 3.4.2.4 Ignoring Processes .......................................................................................69 3.4.3 Requirements of an Effective Organization Design Process...............................69 3.4.3.1 Using Multiple Personal Perspectives .........................................................70 3.4.3.2 Organization Design as Evolutionary Approach .........................................72 3.4.3.3 Focus on Informal Organizational Roles and Structures .............................73 3.4.3.4 Explicit Consideration of Business Processes .............................................74 3.4.4 The Group Process of Organization Design ........................................................75 3.4.4.1 Complex Problem ........................................................................................75 3.4.4.2 Organization’s Members show Interest in Problems ...................................76