What barriers are perceived to be preventers in a serviced based organisation realising business process management?

Abstract

The focus of this research is to consider what key factors can reduce the effectiveness of Business Process Management (BPM) within a service based organisation, more specifically within Organisation X. In order to benefit from the potential advantages of BPM, Organisation X needs to identify the challenges which are perceived by internal stakeholders which may hinder BPM within the business environment. Using a case study approach, the Delphi method was employed as a way to identify and rank the perceived barriers within Organisation X. Twenty-five different barriers were identified, six of which were deemed to have the greatest impact on BPM within Organisation X. Leadership was identified as the greatest barrier followed by Communication, Value of processes, Accountability, Motivation and finally, Culture. Although the barriers identified from the findings are broad topics within business literature as a whole, they should be considered in the context of BPM as well as within the wider organisational context. It is suggested that Organisation X continues to migrate from a traditional, functional, siloed based environment to a process driven environment. The list of barriers identified within the research gives Organisation X a starting point in which to focus their initial efforts of introducing BPM. However, it is important to consider the interdependencies that exist between barriers and the context descriptions provided by the participants.