Business process re-engineering (BPR), a management tool that initially advocated a revolution in the way businesses are driven, now carries the stigma of being a major cause of job elimination. This study reveals the depth of involvement of BPR practitioners in what, advocates claim, are the fundamental ingredients of BPR ± business processes. The data alert the reader to the different understandings and practices related to business process analysis held by several UK and Brazilian companies. Possible reasons are given, accounting for why some of the companies investigated seemed to lose a BPR focus in favour of more urgent restructuring matters. The authors conclude that companies often lack a basic awareness of the business process concept, and that misconceptions about these issues can lead to unrealised expectations at various levels in the organization.

Communication aspects within organisational changes have received greater attention since the advent of business process re-engineering. This fact has been attributed mainly to the necessity of eliminating a higher degree of human resistance on the implementation of such a project. Our argument within this paper is that appropriate corporate communication would promote better chances to dissolve the aforementioned resistance. The research focused on large manufacturing enterprises and it brings to light the industrialists' practices and expectances related to the communication issue and to the investment in IT to assist in the improvement of the information flow within and outside of the organisation. Based on the experience of the practitioners interviewed, a communication model was implemented aiming to guide companies in building their own communication process framework. Despite some important initiatives, the findings suggest that the improvement in the strategies of communication is not sufficient on its own but there are other key relational aspects to be considered in order to achieve the envisaged outcome.

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Notes that, in order to remain competitive, manufacturing industries seek to eliminate inefficiency and speed innovation, perhaps by joining together traditionally distinct functions (the internal “micro companies”) in order to build up an enterprise resource planning (ERP) project. This process of integrating, and then possible automating, business processes has resulted in a need for improved business process modelling techniques and tools. This article explains the importance of first establishing clear guidelines for, and parameters of, any improvement exercise in the organisation. This may involve the creation of a model that accurately describes the existing business processes, exposing the opportunities for improvement. Based on a real‐world model, developed at Xerox of Brazil (Resende Plant), demonstrates the difficulties and the gains throughout the modelling process. Concludes that modelling can assist understanding and engagement within the company as part of a change programme.