Total quality management and business process re-engineering: A study of incremental and radical approaches to change management at BTNI

Abstract

The paper reports a case study (an element of a wider project) undertaken at a Northern Ireland subsidiary of a UK telecommunications company, which is one of the few organizations in Ulster to have implemented total quality management (TQM) and large-scale business process reengineering (BPR). The company's latest re-engineering project is discussed in the context of certain theoretical issues. These include: the nature of BPR; the circumstances in which the implementation of BPR is most likely to be eff ective-in particular, whether or not a crisis is a necessary trigger; the most eff ective mode of implementation; the role of information technology and what, if anything, BPR is likely to achieve. Of major interest is the interaction between TQM and BPR, and how the company has made eff ective complementary use of these two approaches to change management in the pursuit of business excellence. In part, this has proved possible because both are underpinned by a long-term vision and change strategy, comprising many integrated elements.