RETHINKING THE BUSINESS PROCESS THROUGH REENGINEERING

Rethinking business through reengineering is based on the assumption that to meet contemporary demands of quality, service, flexibility, and low cost, processes must be kept simple. Examples of simplifying processes are combining several jobs into one, letting workers make decisions, performing the steps in a process in a natural order, and performing work where it makes the most sense. The net result is that work may be shifted across functional boundaries several times to expedite its accomplishment. Traditional inspection and control procedures are often eliminated or deferred until the process is complete, providing further cost savings. The authors, focusing their research on enterprises from Oltenia Region, demonstrate how reengineering can be carried out in a variety of corporate settings. But although workers are the ones who need to be empowered to carry out reengineering, the authors are adamant that the process must start at the top. This is because it involves making major changes that are likely to cut across traditional organizational boundaries. Those empowered to make the changes at lower levels must know they have the support of top management, or change won�t occur.reengineering, rethinking business processes, regional economy, leadership, organization

A multiple perspectives review of knowledge management literature

This paper reviews articles on knowledge management (KM) research published in journals within the disciplines of Information Systems (IS), Computer Science (CS), Information Technology (IT), Business & Management, and Sociology.Multiple Perspectives Theory (Mitroff and Linstone, 1993) was used as a theoretical framework to classify KM research into three perspectives, namely technical, organizational and personal perspectives.The multiple perspective classification of KM research is then used to analyze articles which discuss research issues related to KM.The review found that the most dominant perspective adopted mainly by researchers is the organizational (O) perspective.The O perspective is adopted mainly by researchers within the social science, and business & management disciplines.KM articles within the O perspective mainly discuss the organization’s capability to manage knowledge as a resource for competitive advantage.The technical (T) perspective of KM research is mainly adopted by researchers within the CS, IT, and IS disciplines. The T perspective of KM research discusses the technology that can be used to support KM process in an organization. Very few articles approach KM from a personal (P) perspective, which discusses attitudes and behavior of KM stakeholders

Role of Commitment and Motivation in Knowledge Management Systems Implementation: Theory, Conceptualization, and Measurement of Antecedents of Success

Our ignorance exceeds our knowledge where issues of motivation and commitment of knowledge workers are concerned in the context of knowledge management systems (KMS) implementation [1,16,17,18]. This study is motivated by the pervasive confusion about the role of knowledge workers \u27 motivation and commitment in KMS implementation and sparse, if any, theoretical or empirical research on these issues. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding how knowledge workers\u27 commitment and motivation affect the use of KMS and resulting organizational performance of the KMS. The theoretical and empirical validation of the framework require first and foremost the theoretical development of the knowledge workers \u27 commitment and motivation constructs and empirical validation of these constructs in the context of a real world organizational study of KMS implementation. The authors attempt to fulfill these specific goals within the scope of this paper. Future empirical research on the integration of motivation and commitment within diverse implementation contexts of KMS and organizational knowledge management programs is expected to further advance the theoretical and empirical development of the proposed framework

Information Technology and Systems - III. Research Publications in Systems Development during 2000-2004

Although systems development research is at the core of the Information Systems discipline, some scholars call attention to a teaching and research gap in this area of IS. In this study, we examine the state of systems development research in IS by analyzing the articles published in three leading journals between 2000 and 2004. We propose a classification framework based on the type of research paradigm (design vs. explanatory) and the nature of the IT-artifact (conceptualization vs. instantiation). Our results show that about 20% of the articles published in this five year period are focused on systems development. In two of the three journals, there are comparable proportions of studies in the design research and in the explanatory paradigm. However, in all three publications most of the articles are focused on conceptual IT-artifacts, as opposed to algorithms or software-based artifacts. These findings are important for system development researchers when they choose journals where to send their papers

IT-enabled Process Innovation: A Literature Review

The importance of Information Technology (IT) is growing, and in a hypercompetitive market IT must be used as a strategic asset for companies to succeed. In order to gain strategic benefits from IT, companies need to be innovative when deploying IT. This can be achieved by reengineering business processes to take advantage of the possibilities IT provides. In 1993 Thomas H. Davenport presented a framework describing the role of IT in process innovation . Based on this framework, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review to answer the following research question: What kind of opportunities does IT provide for process innovation? . Davenport\u27s framework is used as an analytical lens to review articles from the top 20 IS and management journals. The paper provides an overview and an in-depth analysis of the literature on IT-enabled process innovation and suggests avenues for future research as well as recommendations for practitioners. Our analyses reveal five distinct themes related to opportunities for IT-enabled process innovation, all of which offer guidance to practitioners and highlight gaps in our current knowledge about how to leverage IT for innovation purposes

Effect of Business Process Reengineering Factors on Organizational Performance: IT Capability as a Moderator

The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of the business process reengineering (BPR) factors on the Nigerian banks organisational performance. Additionally, this study also investigates the moderating effect of information technology (IT) capability in the relationship of BPR factors and the organisational performance. BPR factors are operationalised by change management, BPR strategy alignment, customer focus, management commitment, IT investment, and adequate financial resource. The IT capability dimensions include IT knowledge, IT operations and IT objects. Data was sent and collected through a hand-delivery method. A proportionate stratified random sampling was used for sample selection. 560 questionnaires were sent to banks’ managers but 417 of them were returned; giving a response rate of 74%. The findings were as follows: first, the findings show that fully supported relationships were found between IT capability and organisation performance. Second, the results showed that BPR factors such as adequate financial resources and management commitment were significantly related to overall organisational performance. Specifically, adequate financial resource's dimension was significantly related to cost reduction, customer service management and operations efficiency. Next, management commitment was found to be significantly related to customer service management and operation efficiency. Meanwhile, IT investment was significantly associated with customer service management. Other dimensions of BPR factors such as change management, customer focus, and BPR strategy alignment were found insignificant to the banks’ performance. Third, upon investigating the moderating effects of IT capability on the relationship between BPR factors and organisational performance, the results revealed mixed supports for the interaction effects of IT capability attributes. The outcome of this study provides important insights to both managers and researchers for further understanding on the effects of BPR factors and IT capability on organisational performance. The necessary suggestions on new area of research were recommended for future researchers

Process improvement : the creation and evaluation of process alternatives

Companies continuously strive to improve their processes to increase productivity and delivered quality against lower costs. With Business Process Redesign (BPR) projects such improvement goals can be achieved. BPR involves the restructuring of business processes, stimulated by the application of information technology. Although BPR is widely applied in industry, a systematic approach that helps a team in deriving designs for better performing business processes is lacking. The approach for Process Improvement by Creating and Evaluating process alternatives (in short: the PrICE approach) is developed to describe and support the concrete steps that will lead a design team from the as-is process to the to-be process. The starting point for the PrICE approach is a model of an existing process. The as-is model contains tasks and their execution ordering, data elements that are created and used, resources and their allocation and performance information. First, redesign opportunities are identified in the process model. A redesign opportunity leads to a combination of a certain redesign operation and a process part on which this operation can be applied. The PrICE approach consists of four steps. The first step of the PrICE approach describes the selection of redesign operations. Eight redesign operations have been developed, each supporting a particular type of redesign creation. We introduce two possible means to select applicable operations: process measures and process mining. Process measures provide a global view on the characteristics of the process and their values may reveal weaknesses in the process. The idea of process mining is to discover, monitor and improve business processes by extracting knowledge from event logs. Process mining results point out what type of changes may be beneficial. Moreover, bottlenecks, i.e., parts of the process that need improvement, are detected. The second step of the approach is the selection of process parts. In this step we focus on the selection of a process part in such a way that the application of a redesign operation results in a correct process model. The third step of the approach concentrates on the creation of process alternatives. An application of a redesign operation to a selected process part results in an alternative process model. An overview of the created alternatives is provided with the process alternatives tree. The root node of the tree is the original model and the other nodes represent the created alternatives. Each of the nodes may serve as a starting point for the creation of another alternative. In the last step of the approach, the performance of the process alternatives is evaluated with simulation. Simulation provides quantitative estimates for the performance, e.g., on time or costs, of a process model. By comparing the simulation results of the models in an alternatives tree, a quantitatively supported choice for the best alternative model, the to-be process, can be made. The PrICE approach is supported with the PrICE tool kit. The tool support is implemented as part of the Process Mining (ProM) framework. The tool kit supports the application of the various steps of the approach. The first two steps are supported with the process mining techniques that are available in ProM. The main features of the PrICE tool kit are the user guidance in the selection of process parts, the creation of process alternatives, the construction of the process alternatives tree and the evaluation of the alternatives with simulation. After the selection of a redesign operation, a process part for redesign is selected by the user by clicking on the tasks in the process model. Colors are used to guide the user and show which tasks may be added to the current selection to form a process part. This way, it is ensured that the input for the creation of a process alternative is such that a correct alternative model can be created. After the creation of an alternative model, the process alternatives tree is updated with a new node representing this alternative. Each node in the alternatives tree can be selected as starting point for the creation of another process alternative. With regard to the evaluation of the alternatives, one can select a subset of nodes for simulation or simulate the complete tree. A simulation study is performed in batch, i.e., all selected models are simulated without user interaction. Afterwards, the simulation results are displayed on the tree nodes. In addition, colors are used to guide the user in finding the best performing alternatives. The developed tool support demonstrates the feasibility of our ideas. This feasibility is also illustrated with several applications of the tool kit to real life processes. Apart from the development of the PrICE approach and tool kit, the thesis includes several other contributions. A contribution is the creation of correct process models. We refer to a process model as correct if the workflow structure is sound and if the data distribution is correct. A correct data distribution is an assignment of the data elements to the tasks in the process in such a way that the data elements necessary for the execution of a task have been written when the task becomes enabled. Requirements on the workflow structure and data distribution are set on the selection of process parts and the creation of alternatives to ensure the construction of correct process alternatives. Another contribution is the overview of the created process alternatives with the process alternatives tree. An alternative model may be created from the original model (the root node) or from one of the alternative models (any other node). The alternatives tree is also used as input for the evaluation of the performance of the alternatives and to provide an overview of the simulation results. A final contribution is the enhancement of the practical use of simulation for process redesign. On the one hand, the automation of the simulation study reduces the necessary time investment because intermediate input from the user is not required. On the other hand, we present a simulation plan that facilitates the understanding of the various aspects that should be addressed in a simulation study

Unicondylar Knee Arthroplasty in the Inpatient vs Outpatient Setting: Impact on Process Time, Quality Outcomes, and Patient Satisfaction

The implications of rising healthcare expenditures are of great concern nationally and internationally. Performing procedures in the outpatient setting can be one solution to this crisis. However, there is a lack of research on systematic approaches for transitioning procedures to the outpatient setting. Unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA) presents an opportunity, as it is already in the early stages of transitioning to the outpatient setting. The key step in facilitating an effective transition to the outpatient setting is comparing outpatient UKAs with inpatient UKAs with a focus on process time, quality outcomes, and patient satisfaction. This study retrospectively compares 400 UKA patients in the outpatient setting with 675 UKA patients in the inpatient setting. The primary analytical tools for this study are Ordinary Least Squares Regression, Logistic Regression, and Ordinal Regression adjusting for comorbidity, social history, demographics, and surgery related characteristics. Outpatient UKAs outperformed inpatient UKAs across 11 of 18 variables analyzed. Process Time will be less for outpatient UKAs in all phases with the exception of Surgery Breakdown Time. The risk-adjusted quality outcomes of UKAs in the outpatient setting were better across Non-Surgery Related Complications, Follow-Up Pain, and Follow-Up Functional Range of Motion Limitation. Patient Satisfaction was higher for outpatient UKAs. There was a lack of consistent and appropriate information to conduct a substantial statistical analysis of the costs. These findings point towards outpatient UKAs being a viable option in the future. This research serves as a platform to launch a system-wide effort of transitioning procedures to the outpatient setting across different specialties

The development of knowledge management and innovation management in a management consulting organisation in the UK

This study sets out to explain knowledge management (KM) and innovation management (IM) developments within the context of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). The existing literature on KM development identifies theories on scope, key antecedents, styles and readiness, while theories on innovation management development are centred on contextual and evolutionary dimensions. None consider the development of both knowledge management and innovation management together, especially in the context of KIBS. The research was conducted using an in-depth investigation of a UK-based management consulting organisation, spanning three iterative phases to achieve theory saturation. The data generated was analysed with data analysis software (Nvivo) in order to facilitate grounded analysis and theory development. The role of the researcher in the case organisation was that of an observing facilitator and there was sensitive interaction with existing theories/literature throughout the process, although theory development was grounded in the research data. The three key findings of this research indicate that organisational responsiveness to the key environmental factors of competitive environment, client expectation and changing industry dynamics shapes the way knowledge and innovation management develop in the organisation. Second, that in KIBS business performance is essentially determined by client perception of value, an impression largely developed during service delivery. The research found a significant level of co-creation activity occurring out of the organisation’s relational engagement. The organisation’s knowledge and innovation management activities reflect this relational dimension of development, a process that has a significant influence on the development of knowledge and innovation management. Third, that there is a conflicted understanding of innovation performance in the organisation, varying from the consideration of it being an outcome of an innovative product or delivery, to it being the level of innovation in the delivery process rather than just its outcome. These conflicting understandings elicit certain responsiveness in the organisation thataffects the development of knowledge and innovation management. An original model grounded in data has been developed from the research, which seeks to suggest that these three factors of environmental responsiveness, client relational engagement, and conflicted understanding around innovation performance, combined together shape the development of knowledge and innovation management in the research organisation. The limitations of the research are discussed, along with wider implications