ساخت سازمان هیبریدی از طریق ERP و نرم افزار اجتماعی شرکت Building the hybrid organisation through ERP and enterprise social software

Most research in the area of ERP implementation is focused on how to improve system performance [1] or alignment with business needs [23]. However Grabot et al. [12] state that the poor level of adoption of ERP systems is often considered as linked to a loss of social interactions between users of the ERP. ERP systems can be seen as representing the formal organisation, containing plans and subsequent actions which must be taken in accordance with these plans [36]. However social interactions take place in what is termed the informal organisation [17]. The term ‘informal’ is originally from organisation management theory, and refers to the emergent patterns of business behaviour that are relatively “loose”, “spontaneous”, and involve “casual social intercourse and comportment” [۳۷]. Rules of conduct imply informal and implicit consents, such as customs, traditions, conventions, ethics, and authoritative relations. Usually, an informal organisation is used to describe a firm which is loose, flexible and embeds human practices, rather than practical, holistic or logical [18]. Recently the importance of informal systems to provide better communication between people and enterprise systems has been realized. For example, [38] highlight the use of flexibility to support business processes to accommodate uncertainties in the competitive markets in a communication technology manufacturing firm. When there is a misalignment between the formal organisation, as represented here by the ERP system, and the needs of employees and the organisation then informal practices will emerge within any formal structure [13]. Furthermore Gray and Starke [13] state that it is important for managers to understand (rather than to attempt to suppress) the informal organisation and to channel its energies towards organisational goals. This study evaluates the use of what we term a ‘hybrid’ ERP system as a mechanism for both improving the operation of formal processes and directing informal behaviour towards organisational goals. The use of the word hybrid is to distinguish it from a traditional (we use the term ‘formal’) ERP system. A hybrid ERP system consists of a formal ERP system in combination with enterprise social software (ESS) to facilitate both formal and informal activities. In general ESS provides a way of incorporating informal communication in firms, connecting people from different areas and solving business problems based on people’s practical knowledge [39]. ESS enables individual-level interactions, such as discussion forums and blogs, through which people can ask questions and get responses from others. This means employees can participate in modifying work procedures and their ideas can influence the design of working methods. Thus, ESS improve business innovation and links with the concept of interpretive flexibility, in that people interpret, experience and contribute to the final form of business practice [5]. Implementations of ESS are often termed Enterprise 2.0 [26] which is a software application based on web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, workflows, forums and blogs inside the corporation’s Intranet [21]. Grabot et al. [12] use the term ERP 2.0 to describe the integration of ERP and web 2.0 tools and provide further technical details on web 2.0 applications that can be integrated with ERP. The article is structured as follows: A research methodology section outlines the use of the case study method and provides details regarding data collection activities. The case study findings section provides background detail of the case study organisation and traces the development of the ERP system within the company. The study traces, through the use of a narrative provided by interviews with company personnel, the implementation of a standard (formal) ERP system, the occurrence of misalignments between the formal ERP system and user needs and the subsequent development of informal practices within the organisation. This narrative provides an understanding of why the company needs a hybrid ERP system and is followed by a description of the implemented hybrid ERP system, consisting of the formal ERP system operated in parallel with an ESS application of a web-based discussion forum. However the company recognised that the successful operation of the hybrid ERP system would require a number of changes in organisational design in areas such as reporting structures and communication channels. The discussion section then evaluates, through a narrative provided by interviews with company personnel, the hybrid implementation in this organisational context. The narrative is thematised using the formal and informal characteristics of the organisation as defined by Gray and Starke [13]. This leads to a contribution in the form of strategies for enabling a hybrid organisation that directs formal and informal behaviour towards organisational goals and provides a template for future hybrid implementations.