The imperative for employee-centric organizing and its significance for enterprise engineering

Abstract

Traditional thinking about enterprises considers (executive) management as the primary and exclusive custodians of enterprise performance. Employees, under management control, must behave instrumentally as parts of the enterprise machine. Hence, no employee variety: standard, predefined instrumental behavior is often required and expected. This paper submits a fundamentally different perspective by arguing that variety in employee behavior is crucial. Moreover, the instrumental approach to employee behavior conflicts in our view with moral and ethical considerations concerning employees and society at large. Our main points are outlined as follows. In the foundational section theoretical perspectives are offered that clarify and corroborate the importance of employee variety in behavior for enterprise operational and strategic performance. This importance necessitates employee involvement and consequently employee-centric organizing. Additionally, the 'unitarist' view on uniting employee and enterprise interests is argued, which implies the shift from traditional management behavior towards behavior that manifests leadership characteristics. The subsequent section will elaborate on a few implications of our theoretical position. Chief among these implications is the humanization of enterprises and the affordance of meaningful work. Next, we stress the importance of enterprise coherence and consistency, specifically in view of the focus on employee behavior and avoiding employee cynicism. Achieving coherence and consistency has consequences for the way enterprises are conceptualized. Dominant ways of enterprise conceptualization are questioned. Philosophical and ontological considerations B Jan Hoogervorst jan.hoogervorst@ams.ac.be; j.a.p.hoogervorst@planet.nl 1 University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium will be offered in relation to the emphasized employeecentric way of organizing, followed by some observations about common approaches to organizational thinking that preclude the employee-centric focus. The final section summarizes main points.

Origins and consequences of intrapreneurship with behaviour-based approach among employees in the hospitality industry

“…The original entrepreneurship orientation scales focus on individuals – senior leaders entrepreneurial orientation, which leads to adverse problems in entrepreneurial orientation and innovation adoption within an organisation (Covin and Wales, 2019). The leader-centric approach has diminished, while the employee empowerment has stretched the leadership functioning to operational employees in organisational development and innovation (Hoogervorst, 2017). Individual-level intrapreneurship is positioned on the base of the firm renewal strategy and venture projects among firms, which might strongly influence firm performance at a different level (Badoiu et al , 2020; Criado-Gomis et al , 2018; Kallmuenzer, 2018).…”

Towards Consistent Demarcation of Enterprise Design Domains

“…His approach contrasts with big-design-up-front (waterfall) approaches of the past and support the argument that stable requirements within a changing environment is an illusion [10], whereas domain knowledge of participating individuals is also emergent [11]. Hoogervorst's [12] approach supports Lapalme's [13] belief that EE will add more value if EE researchers focus on effective conversations within design teams, when they have a common understanding of the enterprise and emerging enterprise requirements. His multi-disciplinary inquisitive approach starts with the strategic context, defining preliminary design aspects, which are translated into areas of concern and requirements.…”

Towards a Human Capabilities Conscious Enterprise Architecture

“…However, as human societies progressed, the pure profit motive started to take center stage in most organizational endeavors whereby humans (employees, customers, etc.) became instrumentalized to the extent that they are considered extensions of technical tools to achieve an economic benefit for the enterprise [24,25]. There are cases where enterprises instrumentalize, dehumanize, and alienate their stakeholders, except perhaps for the stockholders [26].…”

“…In this view, economic value is the single most important bottom line that matters. Hoogervorst [25], while asserting that coherence and consistency should be essential characteristics of an enterprise in the interest of human stakeholders, contends that enterprises are promoting the interests of shareholders at the expense of other stakeholders (particularly of employees).…”