Governance globaler Prozess- und ERP-Harmonisierung in dezentralen Unternehmen

Enterprise-level transformation programs aim at achieving local as well as global change benefits. Although the balancing of local differentiation and global consistency is being recognized as a key lever for transformation success, understanding and handling tensions is not much covered in extant governance knowledge and practice. Recent research used tension theory and evidence from several large transformation programs to propose design principles for tension-aware program governance. This study reports how this proposal is adapted and further developed in a global transformation program of a large international infrastructure provider. The first phase of the program intends to harmonize service production management across 22 globally distributed subsidiaries to provide the foundation for a global ERP harmonization. Findings include differences in applicability of the proposed design principles and additional features as well as insights about systematically establishing large-program governance in heterogenous environments with significant local autonomy. Beyond case-related insights, the study also aims at better understanding contextualization of generic design principles and underlining the need for situational transformation program governance support.