Wonders of the Invisible Workplace: IT and Process Reinvention

This introduction briefly summarizes the six articles that makeup this special issue on IT and process reengineering, and places them against a backdrop of the role of IT within the 21 century organization. Maintaining high-quality information technology (IT) is essential as organizations move toward a "system of systems" and a "team of team." Added to this milieu of managed change are emerging new requirements for leadership and challenging new roles for knowledge workers in the next decade. This article examines three goals for IT in organizations: increased productivity, mediated change, and empowered workforce. Four enablers are identified as the means through which IT can accomplish modernization: (1) using next-generation IT as cognitive tools, (2) understanding the dynamics of organizational culture in order to purposefully change culture, (3) nurturing human performance as a source of yet unrealized gains, (4) leading people as well as managing resources.