Sustaining Process Improvement and Innovation in the Information Services Function: Lessons Learned at the Bose Corporation.

Author List: Harkness, Warren L.; Kettinger, William J.; Segars, Albert H.;
MIS Quarterly, 1996, Volume 20, Issue 3, Page 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 In formation 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.
Keywords: change management; IS service quality; process innovationl organizational learning; process redesign
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List of Topics

#250 0.191 enterprise improvement organizations process applications metaphors packaged technology organization help knows extends improved overcoming package learning better evolution build lead
#185 0.125 change organizational implementation case study changes management organizations technology organization analysis successful success equilibrium radical efforts initiatives managing resistance individuals
#211 0.098 service services delivery quality providers technology information customer business provider asp e-service role variability science propose logic companies especially customers
#212 0.098 business digital strategy value transformation economy technologies paper creation digitization strategies environment focus net-enabled services processes insights challenges key response
#48 0.095 dimensions electronic multidimensional game transactions relative contrast channels theory sustained model predict dimension mixture evolutionary results unique traditional likely finite
#119 0.087 implementation systems article describes management successful approach lessons design learned technical staff used effort developed organization experiences large managing discusses
#52 0.067 supply chain information suppliers supplier partners relationships integration use chains technology interorganizational sharing systems procurement buyer interfirm coordination enterprises flexibility