An holistic approach to understanding the changing nature of organisational structure

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study to revisit and criticallyrnreappraise the impact of IT upon organisational structure, by exploring how the deployment of ERP,rnwhen accompanied by a specific strategic orientation, impacted upon the host organisation's structuralrndesign.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The study was initially enacted through a postal questionnairernsurvey of IT managers within a sample of China's largest manufacturing organisations. Follow-uprninterviews were then conducted with senior managers, who had first-hand experience of working onrnERP implementations, to help to more fully understand the impact of ERP upon organisationalrnstructure.rnFindings - The study found that the implementation of ERP technology and the strategic orientationrnof the host organisation are both likely to modify the structural design of Chinese manufacturingrnorganisations. Moreover, it has been found that the success of an ERP deployment is a strongerrnpredictor of organisational form than the scale of the deployment. The results of the study would alsornsuggest that ERP is more likely to affect structural changes, when deployed in the presence of arncomplementary "prospector" corporate strategy.rnPractical implications - The study provides clear new evidence that ERP is likely to have arnsignificant impact upon organisational structure, but, because of the complexity of the technology andrnthe uniqueness of every organisational context, the authors offer no simple prescriptions or panaceasrnas to how it should be managed. However, managers should be aware that an ERP implementation willrnalmost certainly affect organisational structure, and then take steps to ensure that such changes arerncarefully and proactively managed.rnOriginality/value - There is already a rich and established literature with regard to the impact of ITrnupon organisational structure. However, it could be argued that by focussing upon ERP, by explicitlyrnmodelling the effect of strategy and by taking a holistic view of organisational structure, the paper isrnable to offer a far more subtle view of the complexities of the relationship between IT andrnorganisational structure than prior studies.