Foundations of Group Behavior and Business Process Reengineering

A collection of two or more than two individuals, who are interdependent and working for a common goal is generally known as a workgroup, who interact to achieve a common objective. The Foundations of Group Behavior are generally the different types of groups which the people form based on common interest as well as on the basis of demography. Basically, there are 2 types of group, ie, Formal and Informal group. The informal group mainly promotes friendships and cooperation, whereas, the formal group is mainly defined by an organization’s structure with proper assignment of work. 

When a core business process is recreated with an aim of improving product output, to reduce the costs or improve the quality, we call it Business Process Reengineering and it involves a radical design of the process of the core business in order to achieve improvements in quality and productivity. Generally, companies use the re-engineering process to improve quality and reduce cost and cycle times. The re-engineering process eliminates unproductive activities and the errors. It further improves the quality by reducing the fragmentation of work as the workers involved gains responsibility for their work based on feedback. 

Groups are basically a subset of a larger organization whose potential level of performance is dependent largely on the resources that the member of that group brings. It includes skills, abilities and their knowledge which in the beginning set the parameters for their performance. The personality characteristics of an individual in a group also have its effect on the group behavior. Groups can further be sub-categorized into command, task, interest or friendship groups. The command group reports directly to the manager, whereas Task groups are the individual who is working together to complete a given work. We can call all the command groups as task groups but not the task groups as command groups. In an Interest group or Friendship group, the individual share a common interest and characteristics based on their age and geographical location. 

The stages of group development are based on 2 models, ie, The Five-stage model and the Punctuated-Equilibrium Model. The five-stage model consists of, as the name suggests, 5 stages which are Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning. Further, the consistency of the groups can be encouraged by making the group smaller, increasing the time that the members spend together, and stimulate competition with other groups. The decision making the process of a group generates more complete information & knowledge, offers an increased diversity of views and opens up the opportunity for approaches.

Business Process Reengineering: Venturebean

BPR (Business Process Reengineering) is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business procedures to get remarkable improvements in decisive existing measures of performance, such as expenditure, quality, service, and pace. Rather than starting with an activity flowchart, companies are recommended to start with a clean schedule. Companies are then told to examine why they execute the tasks the way they perform. A method Engineer will observe the activities to be executed and how they can be tricked to put in the least resources and get best returns.

To exemplify the Business Process Reengineering, let us take the example of Apple iPod. Apple reconsiders the approach for music should be made available to the people. The modification it brought was:

• Radical: Even as all other companies were selling song through brick and mortar stores, This Company formed its own iTunes software to put music on the market digitally. 
• Fundamental: This Company sold single tracks at the time when complete music albums being sold at the shops.

At this point, Apple just considers the end need of the buyer and reviewed whether conventions were required.

Why Re-Engineering the Corporation?

Generally, Business process re-engineering is required in two cases:

1. The company has revealed some advance tactic which will transform its progressions to give it more output and effectiveness and so the entire method needs to be alterations.
2. The company has failed to keep advanced with the shifting technologies. As it did not constantly innovate, it is now faced with a “do or die” situation and business process re-engineering which assists add most up-to-date best practices into the procedures are the only way to save the company.

How to Re-Engineer the Business?

Information Availability: To primarily redesign a method, one has to know the aspects involved. Points from inner and outer sources must be captured and presented to the related people in that time period. This assists them to spot the blockages and work around superior ways of reaching the preferred end.

Information Sharing: A Business Process Reengineering project is generally assisted by a cross-functional team. Information needs to be effectively shared in the middle of various people to make sure the reengineering goes as designed and without delays.

Technology as the Solution: The latest practices that are formed as a result of BPR programs arrange the most up-to-date technology to get the preferred end effects. Generally, it is e-Commerce, automation or a different technology-driven solution that is executed.