Dissertation submitted for the degree of Master of Science (MSc) in Human-Centred Computer Systems, School of Cognitive & Computing Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, England. Submitted on 1st September 1994.
Abstract:
Workflow management software is transforming the office, automating business
processes that are also being reengineered by business process reengineering
(BPR). In this dissertation, I examine workflow and its links with BPR. I
begin by considering the theoretical backgrounds to both of these. I also
consider three questions of particular importance in workflow: the nature of
the organisation in which it will be most effective, the standardisation of
processes, and whether it is empowering or disempowering. I hence come to the
conclusion that workflow is the necessary product of a dialectical tension
between control and empowerment.
These theoretical perspectives are then grounded in three case studies of organisations using workflow, which I observed in various ways during this project. A good degree of commonality is seen between the organisations. Two appendices provide a bibliography of papers related to workflow, and an outline of the relationship between different stages of a process going through BPR and workflow.
Download the full dissertation: rich text format (RTF), 144K or compressed postscript, 672K.
View a bibliography of papers and books on workflow and BPR arising from this dissertation.
Return to the Evaluation of Cooperative Systems home page