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An employee-centered perspective on business processes: measuring “healthy business processes” and their relationships with people and performance outcomes

Julia A.M. Reif (Economic and Organisational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)
Katharina G. Kugler (Economic and Organisational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)
Mariella T. Stockkamp (Department of Psychology, LMU Center for Leadership and People Management, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)
Selina S. Richter (Economic and Organisational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)
Valerie M. Benning (Economic and Organisational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)
Lina A. Muschaweck (Economic and Organisational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)
Felix C. Brodbeck (Economic and Organisational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany)

Business Process Management Journal

ISSN: 1463-7154

Article publication date: 10 February 2022

Issue publication date: 31 March 2022

671

Abstract

Purpose

Traditional approaches to business processes and their management consider the “people dimension” as an antecedent of process performance. The authors complemented this approach by considering employees as process perceivers and thus taking an employee-centered perspective on business processes. The authors investigated dimensions of healthy business processes, that is, processes which, while promoting performance, foster employee well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a qualitative dataset and two quantitative studies, the authors developed and validated a scale for healthy business processes, interpreted it from a salutogenic perspective and tested relationships with people and performance outcomes.

Findings

The scale comprises four factors reflecting the three dimensions of the salutogenic concept “sense of coherence”: manageability was represented by the factors process tools and process flexibility; comprehensibility was represented by the factor process description; and meaningfulness was represented by the factor management support. The scale and its subscales were significantly related to people and performance outcomes.

Originality/value

The authors propose that health-oriented business process management and performance-oriented business process management are two components of an integrated business process management that favors neither a functionalist, efficiency-oriented approach nor an employee-oriented approach, but takes both approaches and their interaction equally into account in the sense of person-process fit.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Julia A.M. Reif is now at Department of Business Administration, Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Neubiberg, Germany. Julia A.M. Reif and Katharina G. Kugler contributed equally to the development of this manuscript. Selina S. Richter and Valerie M. Benning contributed equally to the development of this manuscript. This research was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 768). A previous version of this manuscript was presented in 2017 as a poster at the Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, Dublin, Ireland. The qualitative dataset for Study 1a was also used by Reif, Kugler, and Brodbeck (2018). We thank Keri Hartman for proofreading our manuscript.

Citation

Reif, J.A.M., Kugler, K.G., Stockkamp, M.T., Richter, S.S., Benning, V.M., Muschaweck, L.A. and Brodbeck, F.C. (2022), "An employee-centered perspective on business processes: measuring “healthy business processes” and their relationships with people and performance outcomes", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 398-418. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-06-2021-0375

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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