The Impact of Strategic Alignment on Business Process Management
(2018) MGTN59 20181Department of Business Administration
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Strategic alignment has been identified as the overarching philosophy that aligns Business Process Management (BPM) to organisational strategy, but often a gap appears between organisational strategy and operational issues. Willingness and ability to contribute to BPM have been identified as two major operational issues when achieving strategic alignment of BPM. Hence, this thesis aims to close the gap between organisational strategy and these two operational issues through the analysis of the employee perceptions of strategic alignment of BPM initiatives in order to understand their willingness and ability to contribute to BPM.
A qualitative research method was used, taking a constructionist approach to ontology with a hermeneutics... (More) - Strategic alignment has been identified as the overarching philosophy that aligns Business Process Management (BPM) to organisational strategy, but often a gap appears between organisational strategy and operational issues. Willingness and ability to contribute to BPM have been identified as two major operational issues when achieving strategic alignment of BPM. Hence, this thesis aims to close the gap between organisational strategy and these two operational issues through the analysis of the employee perceptions of strategic alignment of BPM initiatives in order to understand their willingness and ability to contribute to BPM.
A qualitative research method was used, taking a constructionist approach to ontology with a hermeneutics epistemology. This thesis is based on a snapshot case study at a British, traditional, made-to-order manufacturer, “TradMan” (pseudonym), which has recently started two BPM initiatives. The empirical material consisted of sixteen semi-structured interviews with employees from TradMan and one with an external consultant who was utilised to help guide one of the initiatives, as well as secondary data in the form of employee newsletters.
The theoretical foundation was formulated from previous research in the field of BPM, strategy and alignment, which was then used to analyse and make sense of the collected empirical material.
From this thesis, it is possible to conclude that the perceived strategic misalignments of BPM initiatives and the structures surrounding their implementation, such as silos and a perceived lack of training, can impact the employees willingness and ability to conduct BPM. Furthermore, it is concluded that the perceived strategic alignments of BPM initiatives can be understood to increase willingness and ability because ideas are perceived to be listened to and implemented. This research adds value to the work of existing scholars through showing the importance of the inclusion of the human aspects in research of implementation of BPM initiatives by taking it into account when trying to understand willingness and ability, and contributes to research that this can affect the success of said initiatives. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8956653
- author
- Brierley, James LU and Bruckmann, Maike LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- A Study of Employee Perception of Strategic Alignment and its Impact on Employee Willingness and Ability to Conduct BPM
- course
- MGTN59 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Strategic Alignment, Strategy, Business Process Management, BPM, Willingness, Ability
- language
- English
- id
- 8956653
- date added to LUP
- 2018-08-22 16:42:09
- date last changed
- 2018-08-22 16:42:09
@misc{8956653,
abstract = {{Strategic alignment has been identified as the overarching philosophy that aligns Business Process Management (BPM) to organisational strategy, but often a gap appears between organisational strategy and operational issues. Willingness and ability to contribute to BPM have been identified as two major operational issues when achieving strategic alignment of BPM. Hence, this thesis aims to close the gap between organisational strategy and these two operational issues through the analysis of the employee perceptions of strategic alignment of BPM initiatives in order to understand their willingness and ability to contribute to BPM.
A qualitative research method was used, taking a constructionist approach to ontology with a hermeneutics epistemology. This thesis is based on a snapshot case study at a British, traditional, made-to-order manufacturer, “TradMan” (pseudonym), which has recently started two BPM initiatives. The empirical material consisted of sixteen semi-structured interviews with employees from TradMan and one with an external consultant who was utilised to help guide one of the initiatives, as well as secondary data in the form of employee newsletters.
The theoretical foundation was formulated from previous research in the field of BPM, strategy and alignment, which was then used to analyse and make sense of the collected empirical material.
From this thesis, it is possible to conclude that the perceived strategic misalignments of BPM initiatives and the structures surrounding their implementation, such as silos and a perceived lack of training, can impact the employees willingness and ability to conduct BPM. Furthermore, it is concluded that the perceived strategic alignments of BPM initiatives can be understood to increase willingness and ability because ideas are perceived to be listened to and implemented. This research adds value to the work of existing scholars through showing the importance of the inclusion of the human aspects in research of implementation of BPM initiatives by taking it into account when trying to understand willingness and ability, and contributes to research that this can affect the success of said initiatives.}},
author = {{Brierley, James and Bruckmann, Maike}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Impact of Strategic Alignment on Business Process Management}},
year = {{2018}},
}