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Most of the 50 largest organizations in Finland have undertaken business process re‐engineering (BPR) projects during the last five years. This study concentrated on business process re‐engineering projects in 21 large Finnish organizations. Of the 21 organizations interviewed, six represent manufacturing industry, seven large public institutions or enterprises, and eight belong to the trade and services sector. The objectives of the study were to shed light on BPR projects in large Finnish organizations in terms of their scope, focus and adopted change management practices. Respectively, a threefold conceptual framework was developed for the study. The findings of the study show that the firms in the trade and services sector have undertaken very comprehensive BPR initiatives. BPR projects in the public sector have been slightly more limited. Manufacturing companies seemed to have the most limited approach to BPR. In change management, all studied organizations identified questions related to change navigation as the most important problem area in the actual management of the BPR projects. On the other hand, management involvement was clearly perceived as the area where the organizations’ capabilities were the strongest. As to the preconditions for a successful BPR project, four major conclusions can be drawn on the basis of the study. First, the broader the projects are in terms of scope and focus, the better the overall results. Second, strong management involvement is a basic requirement for a BPR project to succeed. Third, change navigation is the most critical area of concern, clearly differentiating successful BPR projects from the less successful ones. It is also the area where organizations encounter the greatest problems in BPR project implementation. Fourth, personnel involvement, as well as training and development projects, play a supportive role in BPR and are usually handled quite well in the organizations.

In the third of three articles introduces a model of total quality‐based performance measurement. The model includes five sections: strategy development and goal deployment; process management and measurement; performance appraisal and management; break‐point performance assessment and reward and recognition systems. Each section of the model is introduced, and validated by the results of a survey of the performance measurement systems in a postal survey of 115 companies.

Performance measurement has been receiving increased attention in public organizations. As performance measurement systems begin to take on a central focus by public sector organizations, the challenges of measuring and improving critical organizational processes continue to increase in importance. Furthermore, as the procurement process continues to gain critical importance in public sector organizations, the need to apply specific performance measurement methods to measure and improve the procurement processes is essential for mission success. This article introduces the Contract Management Maturity Model (CMMM) as a method for assessing, measuring, and improving an organization’s procurement processes. The results of the case study describe the organizational benefits of using a contract management maturity model as a performance measurement, as well as a process improvement method.

The objective of this article is to identify through a literature study which factors determine the success of process automation in management systems.

A systematic approach is applied to analyze the available literature on the topic. The first stage of the study consisted of analyzing publications aiming to identify aspects that may influence the implementation of automated process management tools in management systems. In the second stage, a synthesis of the information was performed, resulting in a set of representative factors of the aspects identified.

As a result of the literature review, determinant aspects were identified for the implementation of process automation in organizations in general. These elements are summarized in the following factors: Characterization and diversity of the context, Organizational Performance, People Engagement, Knowledge Management, Automated Process Management and Information Technology.

Prior knowledge of the determinants and associated aspects has the potential to optimize process automation, as it eliminates unnecessary steps and allows better application of the available resources.

Addresses how organizations are approaching Business process management. Following interviews in “leading edge” organizations, qualitative analysis has revealed key themes which may help inform others at an earlier stage in developing their approach to business process management. Presents research propositions, based on these themes, and on a categorization of business processes into operational, support, direction setting and managerial processes. There are implications for operations management in both the probable order of addressing these process categories and in the applicability of techniques and concepts from operations management.

The purpose of the paper is to present a service design (SD)-based methodology developed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) undertake organisational change.

This research used the design science research methodology, which enabled the creation of the Service Design for Organisational Change (SD4OCh) methodology. A real case study of a small service company specialised in neuropsychological disorders was used for the definition and validation of SD4OCh.

The main outcome of this study is the SD4OCh methodology, which is based on three key stages: diagnosis (knowing where to begin by detecting the organisation's strengths and weaknesses), innovation (improving the structure/processes and designing/redesigning services by employing a customer-centric approach), and implementation (enabling the definition of the route towards organisational change). There is also a transversal evaluation stage, which quantifies the organisational changes.

This study adds valuable knowledge to the service science research field and contributes to the awareness of the usefulness of SD theory within companies, especially those which are small and medium-sized, since those companies lack the tools and methods required to tackle organisational change, signifying that the challenges the companies confront are different to those of larger companies.

Although this is a SD-based research, the SD4OCh methodology was developed in order to enable companies to make holistic changes, namely, to innovate their services, structure, and processes, thus supporting and guiding organisational change.

Process management is becoming an essential part of contemporary organizations in all industries. However, many organizations experience problems during the implementation of a process management approach. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the organizational implications when implementing process management, how to handle the relationship between the functional organization and a process perspective, and the roles of managers, teams, and individuals.

A multiple‐case study approach is used to get an extensive picture of and analyze how three Swedish organizations have worked with process management.

The studied organizations have introduced a process management structure into their functional organizational structure, including the introduction of new management positions such as process owners and process leaders. A discourse is identified in earlier research between those arguing for a full transformation from a functionally oriented to a fully process‐oriented organizational structure, and those promoting a more moderate transformation where a process management structure is “matrixed onto” the existing organization. The analysis could be interpreted as supporting the second line of reasoning, where the functional and process structures co‐exist in the organization, creating a constructive dynamic.

The paper provides two major contributions. First, the empirical descriptions and analysis of implementing process management contribute to the knowledge and understanding among both practitioners and researchers. The second major contribution is the identified need of co‐existence of a process and functional perspective, and the implication that complexity is created rather than reduced in organizations.

Business Process Management (BPM) has become increasingly common among organizations in different industries. There is very limited research on the application of BPM in the MENA region and particularly in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical maturity assessment for selected Saudi Arabian organizations from broad range of industries. Findings showed that there is notable variability of BPM perception within the functional groups of the sample organizations. Organizations with holistic business strategy and resilient change management procedures showed more adherence to BPM practices than those with functionally driven or ad-hoc BPM initiatives.

In this empirical study, structured interviews were undertaken with selected business functions owners from ten Saudi organizations. All selected organizations resides in the city of Riyadh with most of them having local and regional branches. The selection of the organization followed non-probability sampling technique whereby the selected organizations were those seemed easy to access and showed willingness to participate in the research. The sample organizations included different types of businesses in different industries. Even though the purpose of the study is not applicable to a particular industry type or sector, variety of business domains and variability in organizations size were considered in the selection process. Table 1 shows an overview of the organization business sector.

This research investigates the current status of BPM implementation among Saudi Arabian organizations. Although there is positive favour towards BPM concepts among Saudi organizations, it seems that the practical understanding of BPM is yet to be matured. One of the noticed findings from the survey is the apparent sharp disjoint between information technology (IT) and business strategy. This segregation, from a BPM perspective, created two variants of BPM understanding; a business variant related to designing and managing business operations, and the IT one which focusses on configuring and installing BPM systems. There is a lack of a holistic view of business processes and its associated activities within an organization. Most surveyed organizations have either no clear business strategy or it is too complicated the thing that make it difficult to integrate it with BPM initiatives. Some organizations have no defined process owners for their main core business processes neither there are measurable goals for their performance. Their main BPM endeavour is mainly focused on the process activities rather than the process output and performance.

This is the first research paper that provides empirical research on the status of BPM in the MENA region and particularly in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the state-of-the-art in research on process owners, a key role within business process management and process governance, and thus to increase our understanding of the role of process owners.

The author conducts a systematic literature review of research shedding light on the role of process owners. The review includes 100 academic papers and 10 books on BPM.

Findings from the review demonstrate the significance of appointing process owners and showcase process owners’ role and responsibilities, as well as obstacles to and enablers of effective process ownership.

Based on the findings from the review, the author proposes a comprehensive framework on process ownership. The review provides a knowledge base for future research to build upon and can serve as a guide for practitioners. The review also identifies several research gaps and opportunities for future research.

Healthcare organizations have been facing challenges due to high costs and low efficiency in health services. The growth of costs and losses caused by avoidable mistakes lead to the search for solutions, and Health Lean Management appears as a potential solution to help in solving service quality problems, as well as reducing risks. This study aims to analyse the state of the art in the literature centred on the Lean approach in the context of risk management in healthcare organizations, and to identify new research opportunities, highlighting possible lines of future research.

Following a systematic literature review approach, 51 papers were considered relevant for this research, and reviewed to explore the development of literature in this area.

Based on the results, five main research streams were identified: (1) risk management oriented towards patient safety; (2) risk management oriented towards employee safety; (3) importance of attitudes and behaviours in risk reduction projects; (4) Lean tools used in healthcare risk management and (5) Integration of approaches. Moreover, several shortcomings were identified in literature.

Identified shortcomings represent significant opportunities for further research development.