ERP implementation and its effect on a few variables of organization structure and manager's job

ABSTRACT

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) a whole s are used in the organizations for information integration and aligning & streamlining their processe for delivering high value to the customers. from one side its very use, it influences manager's piece of works and the organization structure as well. This paper try to finds to evaluate the impact of ERP upon organizations, and examines the ways manager's piece of work and organization structures have changed. We have investigated result of ERP implementation on five dimensions of Manager's piece of work (autonomy, use of power, delegation, race skills and privileged information), five dimensions of organizational make (specialization, formalization, centralization, standardization and complexity of work flow) and upon the flexibility of organization.

A application of mind was carried out in the three plants of a leading motor company in India. It was lay the foundation of that use of power significantly increased in all the three plants. This was contemplation to be related to the 'change management' associated with ERP implementation in the firm. This could also be owed to strategic shift in the firm's position (firm had now become a 'prospector" from its earlier state of 'defender' (in the framework of Miles and Snow et al. (1978))) which l to increased 'decentralization' and 'delegation' which increased 'autonomy' of the managers. Managers at the middle horizontal felt that there was significant increase in the amount of 'privileged information' available with them. Ne for maintaining informal relations for discharging official duties also remains nearly same for senior and middle horizontal managers; however, lower level managers felt that the ne for maintaining informal relations to discharge official duties has decreased. It was also ground that in all three plants that the specialization, formalization and standardization had significantly gone up Using this empirical finding and the theoretical ideas of Frederickson (1986) we present that if a 'defender" implemented ERP then it will lead to erosion of 'autonomy' of its managers. Thus this pilot research brings out that ERP implementation has significant consequence on manager's job and organization structure

Keywords: ERP implementation, Influence of ERP implementation upon manager's job, Influence of ERP implementation upon organization structure)

1 INTRODUCTION

Worldwide organizations are going for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) combination of parts to form a wholes for information integration and aligning & streamlining their processe for delivering high value to the customers. ERP a whole s have their roots in MRP II a whole s which provided support to the production function. ERP a whole s seek to integrate of information across all functional areas (i.e., marketing, finance, HR logistics etc) and confidences to provide increased flexibility to organization in serving its customers.

Studies upon ERP have been a new phenomenon. Most of the papers upon ERP have appeared after the year 1995 However greatest in quantity of the previous studies focused upon how to make ERP implementation felicitous Our paper seeks to investigation the effect of ERP implementation upon manager's job and on organization structure

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Jacobs and Whybark give an extremely good treatise on ERP (Jacobs and Whybark, 2001) Summary of important issues highlighted by means of them are given below:

* ERP leads to information integration for the various functions of the business like Accounts, Finance, Marketing, Sales, Production, Vendors, and Distribution etc It provides the benefit of single data entrance immediate access, and common data. Data are updated in real time, meaning that when data is come intoed into the system, the changes are immediately available to everyone

* Prevailing Business processe are replaced by dint of best practices.

* Organizations with multi-plants located all around the globe are benefited the most

* If information is available quickly and accurately, then resources are bring to better and more efficient use.

* ERP implementation is not an easy task. There are horror stories of implementation failures. It assumes all nation problems are solved and clan cooperate. 'Roles' of some race change significantly due to ERP This brings in resistance to change which exigencys to be handled properly.

* Do not implement everything upon ERP, most critical areas where information integration is essential, could be set on ERP first.

* Matrix for relationship of centralization & flexibility with architecture of ERP Package is given in the following table.

CIMS (another I/T package) makes factories inflexible. of recent origin requirements come up each time and software is really not equipped to handle of the like kind requirements, thus making it inflexible (Upton, 1995)

A investigation in a large aircraft manufacturing organization in the Midwest, USA has lay the foundation of that (Abdinnour-Helm et.al., 2003) the piece of work tenure and job type of an employee influences the attitudes towards ERP a whole Newer employee and managers have a more favorable attitude towards ERP combination of parts to form a whole On the other hand the older employee and employee in the 'staff or 'engineering' category are more doubtful about the benefits of ERP system