The rupture and restructuring of professional self -identity: A phenomenological study of BPR experiences.

Abstract

In this work, a qualitative research method based on Phenomenology was used to investigate how people experience the transformation of their work lives brought about by Information Technology-driven radical organizational change. The application of reengineering or Business Process Redesign (BPR) techniques has been traditionally associated with this type of organizational change. Seventeen individuals from different countries, industries, and organizations volunteered to take part in long, semi-structured interviews to discuss their experiences with BPR. The essences of their experiences were synthesized into composite textural-structural descriptions of the reengineering phenomenon. The analysis of the rich, multidimensional information offered by participants suggests that IT-driven radical change may have profound effects on an individual's professional self-identity. The fundamental process that underlies this transformation interweaves micro and macro components, creating a complex, dynamic web of influences and conflicts that links self-identity, organization, and social structures. Departing from most studies of organizational change found in the scholarly literature, this work brings together Anthony Giddens's structuration theory and the organizational identification framework to explicate the aforementioned relationships. In particular, it proposes that intense and far-reaching changes in the way individuals understand themselves as professionals, their organizations, and work in general are likely to occur when those individuals are strongly identified with their companies and perceive an intense conflict between their professional self-identities and the instantiation of the BPR discourse in their workplaces. The significance of such findings for IT research is examined in the context of the work transformation that has characterized late modernist society.