The concept of “Handara” entered the management literature in 1993 at the hands of Maechel Hammer and James Chambe in their famous book entitled “Reengineering the Corporation”, as well as the 1995 book entitled “the reengineering revolution” by Maechel Hammer and Stephen Stanton. According to Hammer and Chambe, “Handara” is the latest cry in management today. After many pioneering institutions achieved unprecedented results in the development and improvement sphere, other institutions world-wide adopted the new management approach to upgrade various aspects of work.

In theory, Handara is a tool for the development of the institutions that apply it, drastically changing their work performance methods.

Head of Administrative and Human Sciences Department , King Abdul Aziz Military Academy.

The “Handara” concept (reengineering the corporation):

“Handara” is an acronym combining the first letters (HND) from the Arabic word “HANDASA” with the last letters (RA) from the Arabic word (IDARA). It represents a translation of the term “reengineering the corporation “. The following is a review of some “Handara” concepts as appeared in certain management literature.

1.“Handara” means: starting anew i.e. from scratch. It does not seek to repair or patch up the status queue or making cosmetic changes that leave the infrastructure intact. It actually means total abandonment of old established work methods, adopting new and different ideas to manufacture products or offer services to satisfy customers’ demands.

2.“Handara” means drastically redesigning operations to achieve giant leaps in performance.
3.“Handara” means revising initial and basic ideas and drastically redesigning management operations with a view to achieving substantial improvements in decisive performance criteria such as: cost, quality, service and speed.

4.“Handara” means making major improvement within a short time through reconsideration of the institution’s operations and activities.

5.“Handara” means paying special attention to the organization gap between existing organizations with regard to the levels of performance and production, striving to upgrade and update the work methods in a way that helps to achieve a performance leap in a short time.

In a nutshell, the driving force behind the “Handara” is that organizations need to determine and rationalize their basic operations, making them efficient as much as possible and getting rid of secondary operations and secondary individuals. Hammer said: do not opt for mechanization but rather for elimination from existence.

Handara’s Administrative keys:

According to Handara concept there are several organizational, intellectual keys for this operation, including :

1.Fundamental: when applying “Handara” ,fundamental questions should be raised about the organization, its management and operation.

2.Why do we perform this work (7) or why do we adopt a certain performance approach?

3.Radical: means changing from the roots, rather than superficial changes, i.e. getting rid of the old.

4.Dramatic: to torpedo old arrangements, replacing them with new arrangements to achieve a dramatic leap in performance rates because there is urgent need for “Handara” to realize radical change in performance levels and methods. This is because minor improvements require no more than minor adjustments of the work elements.

5.Processes: a collection of activities accommodating one input or more to produce a useful product.

To start the Handara process, the organization should produce a black paper and chart the map of its operations. After this step, the organization should translate the paradigm into tangible reality.

Pillars and foundations of Handara:

1.Redesigning the organizational structure from pyramid to horizontal pattern.

2.Redesigning job assignments, roles, powers and responsibilities, changing them from individual to collective roles in the form of independent, flexible work teams.

3.Giving the work teams wide powers to freely and flexibly perform their assignments. This means rolling the authorization of powers from the top to the base of the administrative pyramid, upgrading the performance of mangers and subordinates and completing the works on schedule.

4.Redesigning the middle administration role, reducing the number of employees so that the organizational shape will be horizontal rather than vertical.

5.Redesigning the incentive systems from the individual to the collective system as a natural response to changing the individual assignments to collective assignments.

6.Changing the performance criteria to suite the collective work method.

7.Introducing information technology to the organization’s work.

Post-Handara work systems characteristics:

Work systems characteristics after adopting Handara are as stated in table No: 1:

Table No: 1 shows the characteristics of Handara:
Characteristic Description

1.merging several jobs in one Merging several jobs in one job to abolish overlapping powers, minimize mistakes and reduce indirect overhead

2.employees take decisions  The employee takes the proper decision because it is part of the work and not monopolized by managers

3.work steps executed according to natural flow of operations Abandoning successive steps method and making arrangements subject to work nature to minimize gaps between steps

4.diverse characteristics of operations Each operation should be designed to suite contrasting production cases

5.completing work on the spot In conventional facilities the work system is based on total specialization, while according to the reengineering concept the work is processed by suitable organizational units to improve performance.

6.reducing monitoring levels Control rules are limited to their benefit and efficiency

7.reducing the need for matching information Reducing outside contact for each operation to reduce incompatibility of information

8.combining centralization with decentralization Organizations adopting Handara could use the advantages of centralization and decentralization in their operations by applying information technology separately for departments and sections, while at the same time connecting them to a central cmmunications network.   

9.operation manager (operations coordinator) Appointment of one operations managers ensures a unified communications reference and acts as operations coordinator and solely responsible for the entire operaton

Administrative stages of Handara:

Handara passes through the following overlapping stages:

First stage: preparation, including the following assignments:

1.Problem awareness.
2.Management approval.
3.Team’s training.
4.Change planning.

Second stage: determination, including the following assignments:
1.Samples of domestic and foreign customers.
2.Performance evaluation.
3.Determining the nature of each element in the organization.
4.Samples of operations.
5.Determination of activities.
6.Revising operations.
7.Organizational and financial plan.
8.Determination of priorities.

Third stage: vision, including the following assignments:

1.Understanding work structure.
2.Understanding operations flow.
3.Determining performance benchmarks and realizing its motives.
4.Appreciation of available opportunities.
5.Ideal performance perspective.

Fourth stage: technical design capable of realizing the vision, including the following:

1.Model for relationship.
2.Reexamining the ties.
3.Data management.
4.Unifying data points.
5.Determining alternatives.
6.Control design.
7.Redeployment.
8.Application of technology.

Fifth stage: social design, including:

1.Establishment of staff.
2.Determining characteristics of working groups.
3.Formation of operations teams.
4.Formation of administrative structure.
5.Drawing organizational limits.
6.Working out an employment scale based on experience, skill, knowledge and efficiency rather than the seniority system.

Sixth stage: transformation, including:

1.Testing the new system.
2.Evaluating employees’ performance.
3.System installation and commissioning.
4.Remedy and transformation .

Administrative stages of Handara:

Organizations in need of Handara:

1.Deteriorating organizations.
2. Organizations in pre-deterioration stage.
3.Organizations achieving maximum success.

The parties in charge of Handara:

The reengineering operation is performed by:

1.Operation leader: the official authorized to make the necessary administrative change.
2.Operation executive: the director in charge of guiding the Handara operation.
3.Handara team: a group of employees charged with applying Handara to a specific operation.
4.Steering committee: a committee comprised of senior directors responsible for working out and developing Handara polices and monitoring their implementation.
5.Handara coordinator: chief assistant to operation leader.

Advantages of Handara:

Handara could achieve the following advantages:

1.Seeking to achieve quality, speed and cost reduction.
2.Practically determining the organization’s objectives and strategies.
3.Addressing the beneficiary as the mover of objectives.
4.Determining value added operations.
5.Focusing on operations rather than on jobs.
6.Determining and analyzing marginal operations.
7.Proper use of administrative tools to ensure accuracy of data.

Handara’s failure factors:

Several factors have led to the downward spiraling of Handara, including:

1.The belief that Handara is a universal, comprehensive remedy for administrative ailments: research by (MIT) institute show that administrative innovations follow a systematic cycle. Beginning as an academic discovery, the idea later takes a technological form. Printed in an academic publication, it is then promoted on a wide-scale as a means for increasing production and reducing costs. Then consultants pick up the idea, considering it a panacea for all administrative problems. After all practical attempts fail to achieve the spectacular results; it becomes apparent that it is difficult to convert a brilliant idea into permanent practice. And ultimately, comes the committed application by a small number of companies. Nothing better illustrates this pattern than the rise of the concept of “reengineering the corporation” to the universality before its inevitable fall As for Hammer and Chambe the reengineering meant more than the mere reaction to operations. They were keen to avoid the use of the term “reengineering of work operations”, considering it more restricting. They believed that the scope of the real reengineering is a panacea for an institutional revolution. Hammer said: inefficiency is a sin in a world teaming with deprived people, and unfortunately, it became clear that many reengineered companies are sinful.

2.Ignoring things for years or decades is an organizational culture that made a certain organization do a certain thing in a certain way. And it is not easy to abandon such accumulative culture.

3.The reengineering concept seemed inhumane in its intentions: individuals received the worst treatment in the name of reengineering in some cases. As the name implies, the reengineering concept portrays the organization more as a machine than as a humane organization and the human aspect proved it is the biggest obstacle facing it.

4.The Handara became synonymous to dismissal from work and reducing the size of the organization.

5.The reengineering concept’s failure to affect the higher administration level because they are not prepared to apply it on themselves: the higher administration officials show great enthusiasm in applying the reengineering concept, dismantling the institutional structures that are no more able to support the organization. However, the higher administration itself escaped unscathed and by leaving their posts and methods intact, the managers will undermine the pillars of their reengineered facilities in the end. (19).

6.Closely scrutinizing the Handara concept shows that its biggest mistake lies in not managing the Handara itself in the first place.(20)

By: Dr. Mohammad Bin Ali Al-Khelaiwi.