Experiences of Implementing Process Management

Introduction

The article written by Klara Palmberg (2010) provides a broad view of the notion of process management as well as explores the ways of combining the functional and process organization. The author of the article identifies the roles of both teams and separate individuals in the implementation of process management.

Main text

The subjects of the study are three Swedish organizations. The author examines their methods of handling the tasks that are connected with process-oriented issues. The results of the investigation disclose the effective approaches to the implementation of process management that were applied by the companies. Besides, the examples demonstrate a model that helps to link the work of function-oriented structures to the process-oriented ones, so that to enhance the efficiency of management within the specific organization.

The relevance and originality of the article consist in the fact that it discovers a unique perspective of the co-existence of process and function structures as crucial parts of a successful management system (Palmberg 2010).

In recent years, due to the local optimizations that arose in various business organizations, the sphere of management advanced to a new level. Together with it, the operational functions became extremely individualized and too costly, so that to be coordinated (Becker 2013, p. 2). Therefore, the process-oriented approach that was adopted by the management of numerous organizations, contributed to the stabilization and improvement of work procedures. The Swedish companies that were discussed in the article illustrate three ways of implementing process management. Though there is a substantial difference between these three strategies, they all were used for similar purposes that process-oriented structures set. They are the following: an increase in understanding among employees, an elaboration of economic control, a normalization of financial procedures (Palmberg 2010, p.109). The models that were applied by the companies were: process organization in parallel to a functional one, process organization as a substitute for function organization, and a matrix of the two. According to the outcomes of the study, every strategy resulted in some positive changes within the organizations. However, one can deduce that the most successful line of behavior was endorsed by organization C, while it helped the company to realize its core functions. The organization standardized the work processes as well as enhanced the quality of the products that it produces (Palmberg 2010, p.102). “Business process management is based on the observation that each product that a company provides to the market is the outcome of several activities performed”, claims Mathias Weske (2012, p. 4) in his book on business process management. Thus, the process orientation of the organization has to result in it performing its main objective that is the production of high-quality products.

The strategies that were adopted by the organizations resulted in one common change: it prompted a more effective use of employees, while every person within the organization was assigned a distinct role, which helped them to concentrate on the work processes. In his article on the success of process management, Peter Trkman points out that a boundary of the efficient process-oriented structure is a combination of proper work with the beneficiary environment (2010, p. 125). Since the environment is created by people working within the establishment, the organizations that adopted a process-oriented direction contributed to its creation in the best way.

The issue that can be overtaken by modern managers is the assignment of roles to the members of organizations. The most consistent model of such assignment is presented by company C that established such professions as process developers, functional managers, process owners, and team leaders. Besides, the company created an elaborate distribution of responsibilities and obligations between the employees, which gave a direction to their work. Moreover, organization C applied an innovative practice of aligning the workers from diverse market spheres into one team, so that to verify their knowledge and experience and to give the employees a chance to learn from each other ((Palmberg 2010, p.101). Consequently, the company managers promoted collaboration and mutual understanding in the work team. Besides, they managed to prove to the employees that no matter which task each of them performs, they all are aiming at one common purpose. In their book on process management, Becker et al. (2013) claim that “the corporate culture and philosophy is to initiate an integral destination finding processes in which all participating units in the company have to be involved (p. 10).

Conclusion

Therefore, the research paper that was written by Palmberg (2010), can provide the managers of developing companies with a scenario of creating a successful corporate culture that unites the workers of their organization into one single mechanism.

The article that is discussed in this work presents a wide range of valuable instructions on how to implement process-directed management so that to ensure the company’s success. The experiences of Swedish companies disclose both the theoretical and practical sides of the process management and help the readers to learn that effective process-oriented work includes such elements as team integrity, roles distribution, product and customer orientation, economic control. Still, one should realize that this type of management has several negative specifications. For instance, process-oriented structures tend to fail if they are used in unstable contexts. Therefore, such management is inflexible in respect to changes (Benner & Tushman 2013). That is why it is crucial to examine the concept in detail and to apply it in the appropriate spheres and cases.

Reference List

Becker, J & Kahn, D 2013, ‘The process in focus’, Business Process Management Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 1-12.

Becker, J, Kugeler, M & Rosemann, M 2013, Process management: A guide for the design of business processes, Springer Science & Business Media, NY.

Benner, M & Tushmann, M 2013, ‘Exploitation, exploration, and process management: The productivity dilemma revisited’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 238-256.

Palmberg, K 2010, ‘Experiences of implementing process management: a multiple-case study’, Business Process Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 93-113.

Trkman, P 2010, ‘The critical success factors of business process management’, International Journal of Information Management, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 125-134.

Weske, M 2012, Business process management: Concepts, languages, architectures, Springer Science & Business Media, NY.