Real and apparent changes of organizational processes in the era of big data analytics.

In the datafication era, organizations seem to face with a new digital frontier to climb over by collecting data, using new analytic tools, reengineering processes and re-designing structures. The questions are: are all these changes real?, is there any apparent change? Firstly, the paper presents some studies and cases related to the implementation of big data analytics (BDA), highlighting the organizational changes and challenges. Then, it proposes a conceptual framework for distinguishing between real and apparent changes of organizational processes due to BDA implementations by adopting the methodological lenses of the Viable Systems Approach. Based on this framework, possible guidelines for practitioners and academics are provided regarding to design, analysis and improvement of organizational systems.