Business Process Improvement and Knowledge Sharing

Author(s):  
Ned Kock

As we have seen earlier in this book, knowledge, whether stored in the brain, computer databases, or other storage media, is more often than not used for the processing of information. Information processing, in turn, has been identified as the main reason organizations exist1 (Galbraith, 1973). That is, purposeful organization of people, capital, and other resources is necessary so information processing can be done efficiently and effectively. Information processing, in turn, is seen as a fundamental step in the generation and delivery of products and services by organizations to their customers.

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1044-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danica Bakotic ◽  
Ante Krnic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate and clarify the relationship between business process improvement and employees’ behavior. More precisely, the purpose is to test whether a business process improvement initiative has a positive impact on performance and employees’ behavior, namely, motivation, communication and knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach The empirical research of this paper was conducted in the year 2013 in an ICT company on 52 employees who worked in the company’s R&D Centre. Business process improvement is analyzed in the change of work method for software development. Two projects of software development were observed. The data about the projects were collected by using the company’s documentation. The data about employees’ behavior were collected by a specially designed questionnaire. Findings Business process improvement led to better results and overall performance. Furthermore, it was found that business process improvement enhanced three important elements of employees’ behavior. These are motivation, communication and knowledge sharing. Research limitations/implications The main limitations of this study are small research sample, focusing on just the way of business process improvement and on only one company. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized and considered as being generally accepted. Practical implications The findings of this study could be useful for ICT companies because it shows the benefits of the Kanban method. Originality/value The major contribution of this study is to prove the positive impact of business process improvement initiatives on overall performance and on the special elements of employees’ behavior. This cognition enhances the existing knowledge on business process improvements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-48
Author(s):  
Jason M. Casebolt ◽  
Ahmad Jbara ◽  
Dov Dori

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1099-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyd A. Nicholds ◽  
John P.T. Mo

Purpose The research indicates there is a positive link between the improvement capability of an organisation and the intensity of effort applied to a business process improvement (BPI) project or initiative. While a degree of stochastic variation in applied effort to any particular improvement project may be expected there is a clear need to quantify the causal relationship, to assist management decision, and to enhance the chance of achieving and sustaining the expected improvement targets. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a method to obtain the function that estimates the range of applicable effort an organisation can expect to be able to apply based on their current improvement capability. The method used analysed published data as well as regression analysis of new data points obtained from completed process improvement projects. Findings The level of effort available to be applied to a process improvement project can be expressed as a regression function expressing the possible range of achievable BPI performance within 90 per cent confidence limits. Research limitations/implications The data set applied by this research is limited due to constraints during the research project. A more accurate function can be obtained with more industry data. Practical implications When the described function is combined with a separate non-linear function of performance gain vs effort a model of performance gain for a process improvement project as a function of organisational improvement capability is obtained. The probability of success in achieving performance targets may be estimated for a process improvement project. Originality/value The method developed in this research is novel and unique and has the potential to be applied to assessing an organisation’s capability to manage change.


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