Reductionism and complex thinking in ERP systems implementations

Thomaz Wood and Miguel Pinto Caldas

RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), 2001, vol. 5, issue 2, 91-111

Abstract: This paper contrasts complex thinking and reductionism during broad organizational transformation processes, focusing on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) rage. ERP implementations have resulted in huge investments for companies around the globe over the last few years, and have been promoted as a management panacea. Not surprisingly, many implementations have failed to live up to expectations. For those dealing with organizational change, the ERP phenomenon may sound uncomfortably familiar. This study introduces the phenomenon, presents a summary of an exploratory field survey of 28 implementation experiences and discusses reductionism in the realm of ERP implementations. It is argued that by applying complex thinking, rather than techno-reductionism and systemic-reductionism, we may open new avenues towards explaining the phenomenon.

Date: 2001
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://rac.anpad.org.br/index.php/rac/article/view/125/126 (text/html)
https://rac.anpad.org.br/index.php/rac/article/download/125/126 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:abg:anprac:v:5:y:2001:i:2:125

Access Statistics for this article

RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration) is currently edited by Marcelo de Souza Bispo

More articles in RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration) from ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Information Technology of ANPAD ().