A Literature-Based Analysis of People’s Roles in Business Process Management

A lot of organizations strive for process orientation to increase their performance. The change from func-tion orientation towards process orientation is a huge project which considers changes in organizational structures but also used information technologies. But many companies struggle by implementing and operating processes successfully. In the last years, culture has examined extensively to be one of the drivers for successful process management. In this context, people have been identified as an important factor for the success of process initiatives. Despite their relevance, only scarce research deals with people as a distinct and fundamental factor in process management as well as in the overall project to achieve process orientation. Goal of this paper is to analyze the different roles of people in process management. Therefore, a literature review is conducted to provide an overview of existing research

Developing a Procedure Model for Business Process Standardization

Firms are focusing more closely on standardizing or homogenizing instances of a particular business process across different business units or locations. Our paper introduces research in progress on a business process standardization (BPS) procedure model that guides firms in conducting effective BPS firm-wide. This model is currently being developed and tested by applying it to a business process at Lufthansa Technik, following a design science cycle and taking an action research approach. This paper shows how we are following the good-practice guidelines of design science and how we intend to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of the model. Eventually, we expect this model to contribute significantly to extant research on BPS, which has to date focused on the outcomes of BPS and on the contingencies of BPS effectiveness rather than making prescriptive suggestions for reaping substantial process efficiency gains in large and decentralized firms

EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED JOB CHARACTERISTICS ON EMPLOYEES’ PROCESS ORIENTATION

A lot of companies struggle by shifting the focus from function orientation to process orientation, es-pecially due to missing process-oriented thinking and behavior of their employees. While, enhancing employees\u27 knowledge about processes by training and empowerment has been considered as the sole adjusting screw to influence process orientation, the characteristics of the jobs, in which the employ-ees work, were not considered in the same extent. As the daily job and its related characteristics rep-resent the core of individuals’ working life, we examine in our paper how these perceived job charac-teristics influence employees’ process orientation. Therefore, we develop a research model on the influence of five job characteristics – autonomy, feedback, skill variety, task identity, task significance – on employees’ process orientation and evaluate the model by using data from a field survey with 191 employees of a global service company of the aviation industry. The results depict that autonomy, feedback and task significance are all significant predictors for individuals’ process orientation. By considering job characteristics, organizations can successfully shift from function orientation towards process orientation

A Theoretical Perspective on Meaningfulness of Work and the Success of Business Process Standardization Initiatives

Business Process Standardization (BPS) leads to organizational changes, which are often faced with employee resistance. To make BPS initiatives successful, the \u27human resource\u27 has to be taken into consideration and with it, the job process fulfilled by them, their needs, and their work environment. The objective of this research is to analyze the role of employees affected by BPS initiatives and their perceptions of their work they are doing as part of the processes to be standardized. Based on job characteristics theory and the work role fit concept, we develop a research model theorizing the role of these concepts for the acceptance of BPS initiatives. As main theoretical contribution, this research explains how employees\u27 attitudes toward their own work and the collaborations with others determine their (non-)openness towards BPS initiatives, while it will also guide managers in incorporating the \u27right\u27 people into a BPS project

Investigating the Role of Inertia in Business Process Standardization Initiatives

Business process standardization (BPS) is an important instrument for transforming an organization from function orientation to process orientation. But, standardization initiatives’ implementation success is highly volatile. One major reason for failure is the behavior and the underlying job-related attitude of the affected employees. Recent research examining BPS implementation success proposes that different factors of employees’ current jobs (e.g., job characteristics) influence employees’ acceptance of BPS-induced changes. Besides these motivational aspects, IS research has shown that non-adoption of a system is influenced by inertia of the employees. Our research-in-progress paper draws on these findings and aims to analyze the role of inertia in the context of BPS. The contribution of this paper lies in developing a theoretical model for understanding the determinants of individual inertia in the context of BPS. By knowing the influential factors, we will be able to derive adjustable screws for practitioners to successfully implement process standardization initiatives

What You Can Do to Inhibit Business Process Standardization

Business process standardization (BPS) has recently got into focus of the BPM literature as a methodology to substantially enable efficiency potentials and therefore improve process performance. So far, the BPS literature has exclusively focused on success factors for BPS and relevant capabilities. By contrast, inhibiting factors have not been sufficiently considered, yet, but success factors respectively enablers and inhibitors are not simply the opposites. The objective of this paper is to identify factors which inhibit BPS and to deduce management actions which help successfully standardize processes. To answer this question, we study the case of an international process standardization project in a global maintenance company. We derive a set of inhibiting factors for BPS. Thereby, some of these inhibitors have to be considered for any organizational change project while others are BPS specific. The specific inhibitors are analyzed in detail and discussed by mirroring them to non-BP standardization research

Analyzing the Impact of Job Characteristics on Employees\u27 Acceptance of Process Standardization

Business Process Standardization (BPS) leads to significant changes in employees’ working environment which affect acceptance for such initiatives. Organizational psychology and management research have examined the influence of work design on employee behavior (e.g., turnover). Based on that, we develop a model to analyze the impact of job characteristics, such as skill variety, autonomy, or task significance, on BPS acceptance. We surveyed employees of a non-profit organization during a process standardization initiative. As main contribution, this research shows that skill variety is the most important job characteristic for determining BPS acceptance

Examining the Impact of Business Process Management System Use on Employees’ Process Orientation

Many companies aim to switch from a function towards a process orientation, as the latter provides many benefits for organizations. However, many of these projects fail because of a missing process-oriented mindset among employees. To create the relevant mindset and foster process-oriented thinking, organizations can apply several learning modes. Another promising approach is the use of a business process management (BPM) system to gain a process orientation among employees. Our study aims to examine the role of a BPM system along with job construals (a high perception of embeddedness of their own tasks in the overall process) as a mediator regarding the process orientation of employees. We use data from a survey of 1,170 employees of a multinational company to show that the use of a BPM system as well as job construals has a significant positive effect on employees’ process orientation

Developing a Governance Model for Successful Business Process Standardization

Standardization of business processes is considered as an important instrument in the context of business process management. However, research in that field has mostly focused on the impact of business process standardization on business process performance while only a few attempts have been made to determine the success factors for effective process standardization, yet. Moreover, a major issue in any standardization initiative is to convince decision makers to follow the standard. This is particularly true when it comes to process standardization: how can a firm be sure that its different divisions have implemented the process standard and that the employees adhere to the rules? Following an action design research approach, we introduce a governance model that consists of a role concept for ensuring successful process standardization. As part of the research process, we provide first steps of evaluation through a qualitative case study at an international aviation company