Does the use of computer-based BPC tools contribute to redesign effectiveness? Insights from a hermeneutic study

Much of the Business Process Change (BPC) literature maintains that the use of computer-based tools for BPC-related tasks such as process modeling, simulation, and project management has a positive influence on business process redesign effectiveness. Our hermeneutic study of text and text analogues in two organizations reveals that the use of computer-based BPC tools can have two opposing effects on redesign effectiveness. We find that, consistent with the existing literature, such tools can indeed enhance redesign effectiveness by providing: 1) a structure to the redesign process; 2) cognitive support to the redesigners; and 3) a mode for standardized representation of the redesigns. However, we also discover that the autonomization of electronically represented redesigns and the organizational members\´ subsequent focus on standardized, detailed, and objectified representations (rather than on socially shared understandings) of the redesign, can lead to an alienation of the original redesigners from the business processes that they envisioned. This alienation, further amplified as a result of frequent and sometimes meaningless changes to the electronically objectified redesigns mandated by other BPC stakeholders in the organization, can contribute to inconsistencies in the redesign, thus resulting in a negative influence of BPC tools on redesign effectiveness. Our study 1) illustrates the use of the "hermeneutic circle" to understand the role of computer-based tools in business process redesign; 2) argues that the role of BPC tools can be better understood by focusing on the sociotechnical interaction of the redesigners with the BPC tools in an organizational context rather than by studying the tools in isolation; and 3) indicates that the effect of tools on redesign effectiveness depends on the relative strengths of the two opposing effects of BPC tool use discussed above.