TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT AND AMERICAN CULTURE - IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS PROCESS REDESIGN

Culture creates barriers to business process reengineering. Three dist inctive levels of culture must be recognized in process redesign-natio nal, corporate and work group culture. American national culture has t he most profound influence. Individualism and autonomy are key feature s of American culture that work against the logic of process integrati on and commonization by rewarding individuals for pursuing their own s elf-interests. This tendency also generates a lack of trust, which in turn creates barriers to sharing electronic data. Reengineering diffic ulties are exacerbated by an American fascination with technological s olutions, and a view of new technology as a ''silver bullet'' that yie lds benefits automatically. Often, process redesign cannot be implemen ted without culture change. Culture can be influenced by exposing inte rnal groups to external pressures, ensuring employee participation in reengineering, recognizing that training alone does not achieve cultur e change, redefining group boundaries, managing anti-champions, buildi ng trust, and leveraging the strengths of national and corporate cultu re.