Measurement of Business Process Orientation in Transitional Organizations: An Empirical Study
With regards to the benefits associated with the business process orientation, only a small body of research in this field has specifically addressed the issue of the measurement of process-orientation in organizations. To help fill this gap, the primary
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Abstract. With regards to the benefits associated with the business process orientation, only a small body of research in this field has specifically addressed the issue of the measurement of process-orientation in organizations. To help fill this gap, the primary focus of this study is to explore the measurement of business process orientation in transitional organizations by providing a framework for measuring process orientation, from managerial perspective, and applying this measurement in an empirical study. Based on the transition framework of this study the transition process from functional organizational structure to a process-oriented organizational structure starts with the implementation of the ERP system by the organization. The results of the study show the positive relationship that exists between the level of processorientation in the organization and the success of ERP systems implementation and utilization. Keywords: Business Process Orientation, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Measurement System, ERP Implementation.
1 Introduction During the early 1990s the concept of business process-orientation attracted the interest of many researchers, and practitioners. Many companies started to realize the benefits associated with implementing process-oriented structure. For example, IBM conducted a review of its business processes and realized that majority of its cooperate customers were increasingly operating on a global basis. Therefore, IBM started to standardize its business processes, and initiated a common business process approach for all its day to day activities. The benefits have astonishing, with a 75% reduction in the average time to market for new products, a rapid increase in on time deliveries and customer satisfaction, and cost savings of over 9 billion dollars. There is increasing evidence from this and many other successful companies that provide evidence for exceptional competitive advantage results when a firm combines its organization’s assets and skills (e.g., marketing capabilities, innovation) with processorientation (Vathanophas, 2007; Regev et al., 2005; Sara et al., 2004; McCormack and Johnson, 2002; and Llewellyn and Armistead, 2000). One of the common themes among the available literature about business processorientation is the notion of process culture with the strong emphasize on customer W. Abramowicz and D. Fensel (Eds.): BIS 2008, LNBIP 7, pp. 357–368, 2008. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008
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satisfaction, and outcomes since commitment to process development directly benefits the customers (Balasubramanian and Gupta, 2005; Balzarova et al., 2004). Moreover, a culture of team-orientation, and empowerment of individuals who assist in developing the process-orientation, and value the costumers are the two core concepts of business process-orientation (Biazzo, 2002). Business process-orientation can help reduce the tensions which may exist between different functions in an organization, and also help increase the connectedness acros
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