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While much research exists on methods and tools to support business processes, little research exists on the interrelationship with cultural and structural aspects. The purpose of this paper is to explore the chronological sequence in which culture and structure are important, as evidenced in 13 non-profit organisations that are changing towards a process-oriented way of working.

The authors use a positivist case study methodology with pattern-matching to falsify or confirm three theoretical perspectives that claim to explain the phenomena of organisational structure and culture, and their impact on business processes. The competing perspectives are: process lifecycle theories, organisational design theories and cultural and motivational theories.

The case studies cover six scenarios based on a recurrent sequence of changes and perceived outcome. The (theoretical and empirical) relationships between business processes, a process-oriented culture and a process-oriented structure are then combined in a process capability success model.

Although limited to the non-profit sector, the findings agree that the process lifecycle is insufficient. Cultural and motivational theories prevail over organisational design theories to explain and predict process success.

From the process capability success model, a roadmap for (un)successful business process management (BPM) is derived with best practices and advice on the sequence of process improvements.

While the relevance of culture and structure has been touched in research before, the aspect of chronological sequence and pattern-matching sheds new light on the topic. The case studies performed also help to evidence how important it is to believe in process-oriented developments for organisations that want to apply BPM.

Process-oriented behavior is a prerequisite for transforming a company into a process-oriented organization, but is difficult to achieve among employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of role plays on adapting process-oriented behavior in daily work practices.

Using the theory of cognitive dissonance, the authors investigate whether role plays are an effective learning method. This study was conducted over a period of two years and included 212 participants of a financial services provider.

The results reveal that the role play used had a persistent impact on employees’ process-oriented behavior in terms of their process knowledge, their cross-functional coordination, and their continuous process reflection, but not on their process awareness. Thus, the authors conclude that despite high application costs, role plays are beneficial for financial services companies to train their employees.

While the data stem from participants within one financial service provider only, this study contributes to the understanding how process-oriented behavior can be promoted sustainably in organizations.

The results indicate that companies aiming for process orientation should apply role plays to achieve a change in behavior of employees.

This research contributes to the understanding of role plays as an effective learning method to adopt process-oriented behavior.

Attention to processes has increased, as thousands of firms have adopted the process view of their organization. Process orientation (PO) means focusing on business processes rather than emphasizing functional structure or hierarchy. Despite the huge growth in the business process management literature, a methodological gap still remains about a certain ambiguity in the definition of the construct specifying its theoretical domain and dimensionalization. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on PO through the creation and validation of a model to measure the key dimensions of the PO construct.

The authors derive from literature several dimensions which shape the concept of PO. In a second step, the study includes factor analysis on a sample of 152 Austrian manufacturing companies to verify that the model is empirical valid.

The paper provides insight in the concept of PO. It concludes that PO is a multidimensional construct, consisting of the following dimensions: design and documentation of business processes; management commitment towards PO; the process owner role; process performance measurement; a corporate culture in line with the process approach; application of continuous process improvement methodologies; and process‐oriented organizational structure.

The sample used in this work only included Austrian firms operating in manufacturing industry. Generalizability of the findings to other industries or other countries is open to scrutiny.

Several studies into process management use proxy variables as an indicator for PO (e.g. ISO 9000 certification). Other studies treat the construct as a unidimensional measure. However, unidimensional measures meet with increasing criticism, as they turn out to be insufficient to capture the richness of such a complex construct. This paper attempts to rectify the content deficiencies in the literature on the construct by specifying its theoretical domain and dimensionalization.

Several organizations choose a process‐oriented organizational design as a source for competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the relationship between process orientation (PO) and firm performance. The paper considers PO as a multidimensional construct and examines how its underlying dimensions impact different aspects of organizational performance.

The paper uses an exploratory research design and investigates the effects of the different PO dimensions on profitability, customer satisfaction, product quality, and time‐based performance using a random sample of Austrian manufacturing firms.

The empirical findings reveal that process performance measurement, a process‐oriented organizational structure, the application of continuous process improvement methods, and – in particular – a culture in line with the process approach, are significantly and positively associated with organizational performance.

While a few studies examined the effects of PO on financial performance, there is a clear lack of quantitative studies investigating the effects of PO on other, non‐financial performance measures. In addition, since most of the existing studies treated PO as a single measure, there is a clear lack of studies that investigate the performance effects of individual PO dimensions. The paper incorporates the multidimensional nature of PO and examines the effects of individual PO dimensions on several firm performance aspects.

Presents a framework for the development of process measurement systems. The purpose can be described as reflecting a strong need for increased knowledge of the development of process‐oriented measurement systems for analysing the order process, as well as knowledge concerning the prerequisites for this development and the potential effects it can have. The research subordinated a systems approach together with elements of the actor‐based approach. The research area’s boundary spanning character required an interdisciplinary integration of knowledge. The research process encompassed an extensive study of the literature, as well as a field study and a major case study carried out in the form of action research. The author’s present occupation as a management consultant has also been important for the verification of the results presented. Presents an eight‐step model for developing a measurement system for a specific process. Special attention is given to the step of deriving and selecting the actual measures. The framework also includes a suggestion for measurement system, a process measure classification model and a discussion of the measurement needs of the process‐oriented organisation.

This study seeks to explore the role of process orientation (PO) in organizations that go through a transition in implementing enterprise systems (ESs).

Based on an empirical survey of 3,000 large Canadian and US firms, this study investigates the role of PO in various aspects of ES implementation. Exploratory factor analysis is conducted using SPSS software to identify indicators and factors of measuring PO and various aspects of ES implementation. Furthermore, the LISREL software was used to perform the path analysis to identify the role of PO.

The results of the analysis strongly suggest that the PO levels at three phases of ES implementation are independent and, hence, require separate measurement. In addition, two research models are employed to examine 14 hypotheses associated with the role of PO in ES implementation. The findings indicate that process‐oriented organizations in our sample are more successful in ES implementation and have faced fewer challenges in the transition process.

This study unveils the role of PO in successful ES implementation. The champions of transition pay special attention to PO throughout the ES implementation. The findings reveal that under certain conditions PO can hinder or support the ES implementation in organizations.

This is the first study that measures PO at three phases of ES implementation. Moreover, two research models are employed to study the research topic, namely: preliminary model, and expanded model. Measurement of PO at three stages of transition provides a unique perspective to evaluate the effect of PO in organizations.

Process re‐engineering, a recently popularised phenomenon, has been advocated as a change management strategy that can be used to refocus organisational tasks into processes so that dramatic performance improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality service, and speed can be achieved. This paper suggests that before an organisation can re‐engineer its processes they must first be engineered. Inherent within the philosophy of total quality management (TQM) is the notion of being process oriented. This paper argues that a process should be engineered by utilising the philosophical foundations of TQM. Furthermore, both the technical and social inputs of a process must be designed simultaneously and be performed congruently. When engineered processes are no longer considered to be effective and efficient, and dramatic performance improvements are sought, then they should be re‐engineered, specifically encouraging breakthrough performance improvements and innovative ways of working and delivering products or services.

In the past few years, process orientation (PO) as an integral part of enterprise system (ES) implementation has been the center of attention among practitioners and academics. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the role of PO in ES implementation through an empirical study of Canadian and US firms.

A comparative analysis of ES implementation was performed based on the data collected from a sample of large Canadian and US firms. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with constructs of the research model. Moreover, path analysis approach was employed to conduct comparative analysis across the two samples.

The findings indicate that PO significantly reduces the challenges of ES implementation. Moreover, PO has been shown to have a positive effect on the successful implementation and utilization of ES under certain conditions. However, the level of PO at different phases is observed to have diverse effects on different aspects of ES implementation as a result of opposite forces of change. In addition, the path analysis confirms the validity of measurement of PO at three phases of ES implementation.

No database of managers who have been involved in all three phases of ES implementation exists; hence, the respondents are asked to answer the questionnaire only if they are involved in all three phases of ES implementation. This places a limitation on the respond rate.

This paper is the first paper that measures PO at three phases of ES implementation and explores the effect of PO on different dimensions of ES implementation. This approach provides a novel insight into understanding of the role of PO in ES implementation. This paper offers two major contributions toward a further understanding of the business processes in organizations. The first contribution of this paper is the development of measurement systems for assessing the level of PO and various dimensions of ES implementation. The second major contribution of this paper is unveiling the role of PO in ES implementation through the comparative analysis across Canadian and US firms.

Well-founded measurements are of high value because a better connection between business process management (BPM) and maturity models (MMs) improves an organization’s performance. Although MMs are appropriate tools for organizations to manage their business processes and, therefore, enjoy popularity, most of these models suffer from their foundation, validation and/or capability coverage. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by providing metrics to measure and manage business processes.

A high-standard and multistaged procedure was followed to systematically develop and validate the measurement instrument involving international academics and practitioners across four continents. Different rounds were used for item identification, item selection, item revision, instrument preparation (pretest and pilot) and instrument application using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The instrument measures 4 main capability areas, 13 subareas and 62 items. The work explains how to conduct BPM assessments in a more theoretically sound way and reports on the instrument’s development to show high levels of construct validity, content validity and reliability.

The author provides a rigorous and more evidence-based instrument, facilitating the BPM discipline’s need of empirical research.

The author proposes parameters to configure the instrument.

Serving as a reference framework, the instrument strengthens BPM’s empirical and theoretical foundations. Since the instrument is free for scholars and practitioners, the author illustrates the research streams and business situations in which the instrument can be applied (in full or in part). This paper paves the way for transforming the instrument into an optimization MM with advice or improvement paths, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

While the business process management (BPM) literature highlights the significance of aligning employee appraisals and rewards practices with business processes, little is known about the realization. The purpose of this paper is to concretize the impact of process-oriented appraisals and rewards on business process performance and to provide empirical evidence on how organizations actually align their appraisals and rewards practices with BPM.

A mixed-method approach has been employed by combining survey results with case studies to offer first-hand evidence. Survey data have been used to quantify the real impact of process-oriented appraisals and rewards. Next, case studies with 10 organizations have allowed us to gain deeper insight into organizational practices for making appraisals and rewards more process-oriented.

The survey proves that process-oriented employee appraisals and rewards positively affect performance if different employee levels are involved. The case studies reveal similarities and differences in alignment efforts across organizations, based on pattern-matching and a multidimensional analysis, resulting in four alignment patterns.

The findings extend knowledge about appraisals and rewards within a business process context by providing a quantification and pattern refinement, which specifically advance a BPM-facilitating culture.

Managers and executives benefit from the recommendations for a gradual BPM adoption to improve the success of their business processes and their people-related practices.

The authors offer one of the first in-depth, cross-disciplinary studies that intend to bridge between the disciplines of BPM and human resource management (HRM).