This paper explores the impact of investment in a quality system on process management. Iden describes the question using four dimensions of process management and applying real facts based on interviewing 23 companies’ managers (110).
Hoyle determines the notion of a quality system as “comprehensive and fundamental rules for leading and operating a business, in order to achieve consistently ameliorating performance by concentrating on customers while addressing the needs of all other interested parties” (9). In this case, quality system implies a set of documents either paper or computer-based that characterize a company’s processes. A conceptual model of quality system basically comprises three stages of process map, processes value chains, and workflow level for each process. For the purpose of satisfying requirements of government or business norms, companies look for official quality certification that quality systems offer (Lehmann 146).
According to Iden, some scholars state that quality system causes bureaucratization and impede innovations while others find an impact although not always significant upon process management (107). The second term of the paper is Business Process Management (BPM) that “deals with the perspective of single processes or even parts of processes or subprocesses” (Dumas et al. 2013). The author of the article also defines constituents of process management such as process awareness, process ownership, process measurement, and process improvement that reveal processes that should involve every company providing information about the business, its owner, results and changes, and growth.
The great attention is paid to the investigation method as the author has carefully chosen interview approach and informants. In the analyses, it is ascertained that processes are not the key organizational units of a firm, they do not accomplish the awareness that functions are achieving. A business process as discussed by Brocke et al. is “a sequence of actions carried out in a business context for the creation of goods and services” (155). Therefore, it is a complex phenomenon that could give plenty potential advantages for “operational and strategic control of horizontal value creation” but firms are not taking it (Jeston and Nelis 11).
The author comes up with the conclusion that managers perceive their quality system as an artifact that is imposed upon them, rather than a significant resource for leading and improving their companies because they are occupied with satisfying external requirements in order to stay in business. The difficulty of translating company purposes to process goals, envision of executives to control all the activities, resources, and outcomes appurtenant to a full organizational process, and complexity of introducing quality system testify that companies do not comprehend the prerequisites of process thinking.
Iden uses a sophisticated approach to the research procedure including descriptive and interpretive analysis to prove his point of view. He presents a systematic description of what actually quality system and process management are. The analysis of the data that was made by the author can be easily proved as there is evidence of it being taken from reliable sources. The author mentions numerous credible sources and provides the reader with the illustrative material such as tables and diagrams based on data from different business sectors. Consequently, one may conclude that the goal desired by the author was achieved because he afforded a reader with the useful and comprehensible information. Personally, I agree with the author because the information presented in the article appears to be accurate and trustworthy.
Works Cited
Brocke, Jan Vom, and Michael Rosemann. Handbook on Business Process Management 2 Strategic Alignment, Governance, People and Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Springer, 2015. Print.
Dumas, Marlon, Marcello La Rosa, Jan Mendling, and Hajo Reijers. Fundamentals of Business Process Management, Berlin: Springer, 2013. Print.
Hoyle, David. ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook Using the Standards as a Framework for Business Improvement. 6th ed. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009. Print.
Iden, Jon. “Investigating Process Management in Firms with Quality Systems: A Multi‐case Study.” Business Process Management Journal 18.1 (2012): 104-21. Print.
Jeston, John, and Johan Nelis. Business Process Management. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2010. Print.
Lehmann, Carl F. Strategy and Business Process Management Techniques for Improving Execution, Adaptability, and Consistency, Hoboken: CRC, 2012. Print.