Toward the concept of pockets of creativity in business processes

The study will cross-fertilise Information Systems (IS) and Services Marketing ideas through reconceptualising the information system as a service (ISaaS). The study addresses known limitations of arguably the two most significant dependent variables in these disciplines - Information System Success or IS-Impact, and Service Quality. Planned efforts to synthesise analogous conceptions across these disciplines, are expected to force a deeper theoretical understanding of the broad notions of success, quality, value and satisfaction and their interrelations. The aims of this research are to: (1) yield a conceptually superior and more extensively validated IS success measurement model, and (2) develop and operationalise a more rigorously validated Service Quality measurement model, while extending the ‘service’ notion to ‘operational computer-based information systems in organisations’. In the development of the new models the study will address contemporary validation issues

How German hospitals govern IT - An empirical exploration

Health care services in German hospitals are causing immense expenses. Successful IT Governance might help to support specific challenges for every organization with an adequate use of IT. The market structure of hospitals in Germany is very heterogeneous, e.g. in size and sponsorship. This paper analyses the state of the art of IT Governance based on a survey among 220 IT executives in German hospitals. The quantitative analyses of collected survey data reveal that hospitals govern their IT differently according to size and sponsorship. In addition, our analyses show that decision-making authority for the IT budget rises with hospital size and is positively correlated with the fraction of IT projects in the overall IT budget. We also show that the investments in innovative IT projects increase with hospital size. Our study revealed that a high number of private and larger hospitals lack a systematic IT Governance approach within the decision domain on IT projects. This study is the first to shed light into the empirical situation of IT Governance in German hospitals. Creativity-intensive processes such as the development of marketing campaigns or the production of visual effects increasingly find their way into the agenda of process managers. Such processes often comprise of both well-structured, transactional parts and creative parts that often cannot be specified in terms of their process flow, required resources, and outcome. Moreover, the processes’ high variability sets boundaries for the possible degree of automation. In this paper we introduce the concept of pockets of creativity as an analytic device which is hoped to support process managers in their efforts to identify and describe creative sections in business processes. We argue that this step of identifying and describing is imperative to successfully allocate resources, integrate creativity into the overall process, and introduce process automation for those parts that are well-structured and can actually be automated. Our argument rests in the examination of existent literature as well as in findings from exploratory case studies that were conducted in the film and visual effects industry in order to study processes that rely on creativity

Team equilibrium and innovation performance

2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksToday competition has increased between organizations and they are urged to improve constantly their performance throughout innovation if they want to survive and be profitable. However, an organization can't be innovative if it doesn't counts with creative people and build teams to strength its creative and innovative capabilities. Besides, the impact of technology in innovation has been widely studied but there are others major aspects that need more exploration to understand their influence in it. For example, collaborative work, multicultural teamwork, creative teamwork, entrepreneurial behavior, etc. Some authors suggest more research is needed regarding organization capabilities that promote effective relationships for innovation. According to West (2002), three issues dominated research about creativity and innovation among teams: the characteristics of group tasks and their impact in the creative-innovative process; the role of diversity in knowledge and skills between team members; and team integration. If these issues are relevant for team creativity and innovation, then frameworks and tools to configure teams are necessary. It may be taken by granted that there must be an equilibrium of roles within teams to foster creativity focused on innovation. So, in this paper several approaches of creativity are reviewed. Then a conceptual model to foster Team Equilibrium and strength innovation performance is proposed and applied through a web-based tool. A first empiric exploration is presented. The proposed model can be used as a basis to develop tools that helps teams for self-analysis.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Фесенко Т. Г., Шахов А. В., Фесенко Г. Г. Ідентифікація креативних завдань у проектному менеджменті із використанням гендерного підходу

Окреслено специфіку творчої діяльності у проектних колективах. Висвітлено особливості фемінної і маскулінної логічних систем в контексті «творчої поведінки» (відповідно до National Competence Baseline, NCB). Запропонована модель творчих завдань у процесах управління проектами (відповідно до A Guide to the project management body of knowledge, PMBOK). Описана динаміка застосування творчої роботи на різних фазах життєвого циклу проекту. Зазначено, що найбільша потреба у креативності існує на фазі «ініціація» і «планування», а її специфіка проявляється у бізнес-процесах і міститься у «кишенях творчості». Запропонований гендерний фокус креативної компетенції проектного менеджера дає можливість застосовувати фемінні і маскулінні когнітивні стилі для ефективної роботи команди на усіх фазах проекту

Evaluating Groupware for Creative Group Processes – The Case Study of CreativeFlow

The creative potential of teams plays a crucial role in generating the competitive advantage of organizations. We introduce an architecture supporting creative group processes in the context of business processes. Based on the theoretical concept of Pockets of Creativity (Seidel et al. 2010), the architecture aims to balance freedom for creative group work and constraints set by the processes in its environment. The architecture is implemented in the prototype CreativeFlow, integrating a groupware component and a workflow component. The prototype is evaluated in a case study in a TV production company. Free participation in group tasks and support for the structuring of ideas were deemed appropriate for the support of creative group processes. Process structure is mainly imposed by project deadlines that require user notification, also outside the workflow component. Process orientation is a promising approach to increase the efficiency of the creative value creation

Creativity and Information Systems in a Hypercompetitive Environment: A Literature Review

In today’s hypercompetitive environment in which markets change rapidly and competitive advantages are difficult to sustain, companies are forced to innovate and identify new business opportunities. However, innovation requires ingenuity and creativity. Product and service development depends on the creativity of employees, but harvesting and bringing novel ideas to fruition is often a chaotic process, which underscores the importance of creativity management within organizations. In this article, we review the literature on creativity in an effort to summarize state-of-the-art knowledge on how to stimulate creativity and spur innovation in modern organizations. For that purpose, we use Rhodes’ 4-Ps model (1961) distinguishing between creative environments (called press), people, products, and processes. Through a review of 110 journals on the AIS journal list, this article offers insights―based on eighty-eight articles―into how creativity can be stimulated and supported by attending to each of these components. The literature teaches us how to utilize, evaluate, and strategize about creativity in organizational settings. Managers are advised to advance creativity and ideation processes, for example by building virtual environments that strengthen collaboration and creativity across organizational boundaries. Researchers are encouraged to investigate the relationship between strategy and information systems (IS) usage in fostering creativity

DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASUREMENT SCALE FOR BUSINESS PROCESS STANDARDIZATION

Process-oriented companies face the dichotomy of process standardization versus process diversity. On the one hand, multinational companies try to realize returns of scale by standardization. On the other hand, markets require businesses to adapt to local needs and government regulations. As of to-day, there is no framework available to measure the degree of process standardization. This is both a problem for companies that want to assess their degree of standardization as well as for research that aims to investigate standardization and its connection with other concepts. In this paper, we address this research gap from the perspective of scale development. We utilize a well-acknowledged method for devising a measurement instrument to specifically and directly measure the degree of standardiza-tion in business processes. Various application scenarios and future research areas are pointed out

Hospital-wide Process-oriented Organization of Care: The Case of Turku University Central Hospital

In reaction to the productivity challenges that hospitals around the world have faced, some hospitals have begun to move towards a process-oriented organization of care in order to enhance productivity. Existing research on process-oriented organization emphasizes severe challenges along the implementation process. However, the literature contains only a small number of documented cases of hospital-wide process-oriented reorganization. Against this background, in this case study, we explain how hospitals can successfully implement organization-wide process orientation. To do so, we conducted an exploratory single case study with semi-structured, face-to-face interviews and document analyses as our primary data-collection methods. We developed a theoretical framework of antecedents, interventions, enablers, barriers, and consequences that explain the trajectory of this successful hospital-reorganization project. We contribute a substantive theory on which other researchers can build and can extend in future studies. Further, in analyzing our unique case, we identify factors that the extant literature has not yet discussed, such as the blackboxing of diagnosis and treatment activities as an enabler. In line with existing literature, we also found that, even in this case, inflexible healthcare IT represented a barrier that hindered the case study in implementing process orientation

Improving Design of Systems Supporting Creativity-intensive Processes – A Cross-industry Focus Group Evaluation

Organizations depend on the creative potential of their members to continuously develop innovative solutions. Groups commonly approach creative processes using collaborative IT. However, current design of information systems does not cater to the business processes representing the context in which groups operate. Creativity-intensive processes are a conceptualization of business processes that involve creativity. Voigt, Bergener, and Becker (2013) developed an explanatory design theory for information systems supporting creativity-intensive processes. The core component of the design theory is an information system architecture for creativity-intensive process support systems (CPSS). This paper evaluates the utility of the CPSS architecture to comprehensively support creativity-intensive processes. Three exploratory cross-industry focus groups, in which the architecture instantiation CreativeFlow was demonstrated, suggest that the features of CreativeFlow and the underlying architectural concepts are useful in supporting practitioners’ processes, especially for the support of creative group processes. However, three modifications to the CPSS architecture emerge: increased freedom for choosing individuals responsible for group tasks, differentiated authorization for creating and assigning creative group tasks, and advanced communication support for initiation of standard workflows. The evaluation further contributes recommendations for tool features and four research issues to advance system design of tools supporting creativity in business processes. The study provides insights for future information system evaluations in Design Science Research on Information Systems

Using a Work System Perspective to Expand BPM Research Use Cases

Business process management (BPM) has developed as a research field primarily situated in the computer and information systems sciences. Recently, van der Aalst (2013) analyzed the results of these research efforts and identified a set of research topics in the form of a series of BPM research use cases. Those BPM research use cases emphasize technological and computational challenges and solutions. Ideally, however, BPM research should also address managerial and organizational challenges that the existing technically oriented research use cases do not fully reflect. We propose expanding the scope and impact of BPM research by drawing on work system theory (WST) to identify new BPM research use cases and directions. After comparing a WST perspective on basic BPM topics with the technically oriented BPM perspective expressed in van der Aalst (2013), we present new research topics that extend the technically oriented BPM research use cases in van der Aalst (2013). We also present new research directions that go beyond those use cases. Taken together, the extensions of the existing research use cases and the new use cases lead to a more balanced BPM research agenda that more fully blends technical and managerial challenges