Business Reengineering in the Context of Knowledge Based-Organizations

The concepts of knowledge management and business reengineering have grown in the last decade and lead between other things to an increasing interest in enhancing organizational performances. Despite numerous empirical research into knowledge management (KM) and business reengineering (BR) in industries such as automobile, pharmaceuticals, consulting service industry, little is known about the KM and BR practices in the cosmetics industry from Romania. This paper is based on exploratory literature review of different approaches regarding the KM and BR practices in organizations in general. The paper also presents the preliminary results of an online survey conducted at 10 cosmetic companies from Romania. The results are part of a doctoral research which aims to identify specific management practices inside Romanian organizations. The field of BR and KM is diverse and involves a series of theoretical and methodological approaches, thus the primary objective of the paper was to present relevant literature review in order to obtain a sound understanding of the link between the two concepts. The cosmetics industry in Romania is dominated by multinationals which operate in a highly competitive environment, which is mainly driven by creativity and innovation. The findings so far show that both BR and KM are recognized and practiced in the Romanian cosmetics industry. The results of the paper should be useful first for cosmetics companies, but also for organizations in general. Academics interested in knowledge management and business reengineering could also use the results of this paper for future research.