Jörg Nitzsche, Tammo van Lessen, Dimka Karastoyanova and Frank Leymann
Service‐oriented architecture (SOA) is an architecture paradigm targeting integration of applications within and across enterprise boundaries. It has gathered research and…
Abstract
Purpose
Service‐oriented architecture (SOA) is an architecture paradigm targeting integration of applications within and across enterprise boundaries. It has gathered research and industry acceptance and has given an enormous impetus to the business process management technology. Web service (WS) technology is one implementation of the SOA paradigm. It enables seamless integration of new and legacy applications through a stack of standardized composable specifications. WS orchestration is facilitated by the Business Process Execution Language which provides a recursive service composition model. While the programming model the WS technology provides is very flexible, a major deficiency is the need to discover services implementing a particular abstract interface, whereas functional similarities of services are disregarded. The Semantic Web Service technologies, like Web Service Modelling Ontology (WSMO) and Web Ontology Language for Services have been developed with the purpose of eliminating these deficiencies by enabling service discovery based on functional and non‐functional properties. The paper aims to focus on these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a list of requirements that business processes impose on SOA applications. It analyzes the support that WSMO/Web Service Model eXecution environment (WSMX) provides to address these requirements and compares it with the support enabled by the WS specification stack.
Findings
The paper identifies major flaws in the WSMO model and its reference implementation with respect to business process support.
Originality/value
The paper recommends possible solutions for eliminating the lack of needed features on behalf of WSMO/WSMX. It presents in detail how to enable asynchronous stateful communication among WSMO WS and partner‐based WS discovery by extending the WSMO model. Additionally, it extends the API of the reference implementation to facilitate the execution of services communicating asynchronously.
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Ryan K.L. Ko, Stephen S.G. Lee and Eng Wah Lee
In the last two decades, a proliferation of business process management (BPM) modeling languages, standards and software systems has given rise to much confusion and obstacles to…
Abstract
Purpose
In the last two decades, a proliferation of business process management (BPM) modeling languages, standards and software systems has given rise to much confusion and obstacles to adoption. Since new BPM languages and notation terminologies were not well defined, duplicate features are common. This paper seeks to make sense of the myriad BPM standards, organising them in a classification framework, and to identify key industry trends.
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive literature review is conducted and relevant BPM notations, languages and standards are referenced against the proposed BPM Standards Classification Framework, which lists each standard's distinct features, strengths and weaknesses.
Findings
The paper is unaware of any classification of BPM languages. An attempt is made to classify BPM languages, standards and notations into four main groups: execution, interchange, graphical, and diagnosis standards. At the present time, there is a lack of established diagnosis standards. It is hoped that such a classification facilitates the meaningful adoption of BPM languages, standards and notations.
Practical implications
The paper differentiates BPM standards, thereby resolving common misconceptions; establishes the need for diagnosis standards; identifies the strengths and limitations of current standards; and highlights current knowledge gaps and future trends. Researchers and practitioners may wish to position their work around this review.
Originality/value
Currently, to the best of one's knowledge, such an overview and such an analysis of BPM standards have not so far been undertaken.
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Melanie Bryant and Julie Wolfram Cox
This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia…
Abstract
This paper explores the retrospective construction of atrocity narratives of organizational change in primary industries of the Latrobe Valley, located in southeast Australia. Within their narratives, participants discuss various forms of workplace violence aimed at employees by management and, in some cases, other employees. In addition, shifting narratives from violence to resignation are explored. As all participants are no longer employed in the organizations described in the narratives, causal associations between workplace violence and resignation choices are of particular interest. In this context, atrocity narratives are presented in a deliberate effort to extend the theorizing of organizational change into domains that are neither attractive nor progressive.
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Charalampos Giousmpasoglou, Evangelia Marinakou and John Cooper
This study aims to conceptualise how the occupational socialisation of young chefs is conducted in Michelin-starred restaurants in Great Britain and Ireland; the key role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to conceptualise how the occupational socialisation of young chefs is conducted in Michelin-starred restaurants in Great Britain and Ireland; the key role of banter and bullying in this process is explored and critically discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research critically discusses the data from 54 in-depth, face-to-face interviews with male and female Michelin-starred chefs in Great Britain and Ireland. A flexible interview guide was used to ensure all key areas, and topics discussed earlier in the literature review were covered. The rich data from the interviews were categorised in four different themes.
Findings
Drawing upon the fieldwork, fresh insights into the social structures, processes and group dynamics which underpin the socialisation process of young chefs are revealed in the participants’ own words. Four areas emerged from the usage of thematic analysis: occupational status, discipline and hierarchy in kitchen brigades, gender segregation in kitchen brigades and the role of banter and bullying in occupational socialisation.
Research limitations/implications
This study generates empirical data that inform contemporary debates about the role of banter and bullying in the occupational socialisation process of new members in Michelin-starred restaurants. A conceptual framework on the process of occupational socialisation in Michelin-starred kitchen brigades in Great Britain and Ireland is also provided.
Practical implications
The findings of this study suggest that banter and bullying are deeply embedded in chefs’ occupational culture; they also play a key role in the process of induction and occupational socialisation of the new recruits. In addition, gender segregation was found to be a persistent problem in commercial kitchens – young female chefs have to endure the same harsh conditions during the induction and occupational socialisation process. A recommended course of action to eradicate this phenomenon involves HR professionals, hospitality managers and the Michelin Guide.
Originality/value
The understanding of chefs’ induction and occupational socialisation is deemed crucial for successful hospitality operations; nevertheless, this still remains an under-researched area. This study is unique in terms of scale and depth; it is expected to provide useful insights in both theoretical and practical perspective, regarding the induction, socialisation and eventually, retention of young chefs in Michelin-starred restaurants.
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Previous research on pedagogical reforms has seldom looked at how reform may contribute to aggression in school organizations. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research on pedagogical reforms has seldom looked at how reform may contribute to aggression in school organizations. The purpose of this paper is to hypothesize that teachers’ disengagement from school mediates the tendency for teachers to manifest aggression when they are implementing pedagogical reform in school. Behind this hypothesis is the assumption that people are bound to encounter obstacles when implementing changes, and the resultant frustration can easily grow into feelings of disengagement and aggression which block the changes.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 845 teachers in 30 secondary schools in Hong Kong were surveyed and path analysis employed to look at how constraint in an organization and feeling of disengagement within the school hampers the successful implementation of reform towards constructivist pedagogy.
Findings
Results of the study suggest that feelings of disengagement amplify the negative impact of instructional change and cause aggressive impulses within the school to intensify, but support from school can significantly reduce the feelings of disengagement and constraint experienced by teachers. Findings of the study contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of change and its impacts on school organizations.
Originality/value
Although some studies have looked at workplace aggression in a school setting, there is no work being done to look at how mandated school reform contributes to workplace aggression.
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This research study looks at issues such as why does incivility occur, dynamics responsible for incivility with an emphasis on causes stimulated by the general context and its…
Abstract
Purpose
This research study looks at issues such as why does incivility occur, dynamics responsible for incivility with an emphasis on causes stimulated by the general context and its influence on the behavior of individuals, groups and organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides a fresh perspective on workplace incivility by integrating institutional theory with empirical data from two case studies from academic institutions located in different continents to understand incivility in organizations. A comparative case analysis across two different geographical regions is used to validate the argument that institutional antecedents can influence micro-level organizational events such as employee incivility despite variance in geographical locations and cultural dimensions.
Findings
The findings of the study reveal that academic institutions are subject to uncivil behaviors, which could be a direct offshoot of the historical and cultural beliefs of the society. The general context of the studied cases led to workplace incivility mainly in the form of racial prejudices and sectarianism transferred to the organizational day-to-day practice. The paper suggests a pragmatic view for possible interventions to humanize workplaces where it is better not to adopt a “one size fits all” recipe to deal with such a complex phenomenon.
Originality/value
This paper provides a macro-level analysis of workplace incivility by assuming an institutional perspective to explore the relationships if any between incivility experienced by employees within an organization and the wider political and historical structuration of the society.
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Frank Teuteberg, Martin Kluth, Frederik Ahlemann and Stefan Smolnik
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and evaluate the semantic process benchmarking concept.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and evaluate the semantic process benchmarking concept.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' approach includes the use of metamodels and ontologies, which make the process models syntactically and semantically comparable. Furthermore, a software prototype is presented to analyze and compare individual process models and their performance information. Thereafter, the technical, conceptual, and economic perspectives of the approach's evaluation are aligned with their respective outcomes.
Findings
The evaluation proves that this approach is generally suitable to generate novel and useful information on different process models and their performance within the same problem domain. However, the initial set‐up costs are high and will only pay off once process models are used regularly.
Practical implications
The proposed approach depends strongly on the availability of appropriate metrics and ontologies, as well as on the annotation of these ontologies to process models, which is a time‐consuming task. If large benchmarking clearing centers are established, the approach will be more cost‐effective. The developed SEMAT prototype, that demonstrates and proves the proposed approach's general viability, supports cost‐effective ontology engineering and annotation in the context of semantic process benchmarking initiatives.
Originality/value
To date, process benchmarking has primarily been a manual process. In this article, the authors suggest an approach that allows time‐consuming and costly process analysis to be partially automated, which makes the performance indicators, as well as qualitative differences between processes, apparent.
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Bokyoung Kang, Dongsoo Kim and Suk‐Ho Kang
The purpose of this paper is to provide industrial managers with insight into the real‐time progress of running processes. The authors formulated a periodic performance prediction…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide industrial managers with insight into the real‐time progress of running processes. The authors formulated a periodic performance prediction algorithm for use in a proposed novel approach to real‐time business process monitoring.
Design/methodology/approach
In the course of process executions, the final performance is predicted probabilistically based on partial information. Imputation method is used to generate probable progresses of ongoing process and Support Vector Machine classifies the performances of them. These procedures are periodically iterated along with the real‐time progress in order to describe the ongoing status.
Findings
The proposed approach can describe the ongoing status as the probability that the process will be executed continually and terminated as the identical result. Furthermore, before the actual occurrence, a proactive warning can be provided for implicit notification of eventualities if the probability of occurrence of the given outcome exceeds the threshold.
Research limitations/implications
The performance of the proactive warning strategy was evaluated only for accuracy and proactiveness. However, the process will be improved by additionally considering opportunity costs and benefits from actual termination types and their warning errors.
Originality/value
Whereas the conventional monitoring approaches only classify the already occurred result of a terminated instance deterministically, the proposed approach predicts the possible results of an ongoing instance probabilistically over entire monitoring periods. As such, the proposed approach can provide the real‐time indicator describing the current capability of ongoing process.
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Gunjan Sharma and Kushagra Kulshreshtha
The leaders’ perception about self and the opinion of the subordinates about them is crucial to understand why some leaders qualify for hate. Much has been discussed on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The leaders’ perception about self and the opinion of the subordinates about them is crucial to understand why some leaders qualify for hate. Much has been discussed on the positive and ethical side of leadership. However, the research on the darker side of leadership needs more attention. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the factors along with their impact responsible for hate-for-leaders, a relatively scant area of leadership. This study may facilitate understanding why some leaders become subject to hate despite many efforts by the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
For exploring the different factors responsible for hate-for-leaders, a survey was conducted by developing a scale using the focus group, Delphi technique, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The results were analysed using structural equation modelling.
Findings
The factors responsible for qualifying the leaders for hate were identified. Moreover, the results indicated that the subordinate hate the leaders for his/her unacceptable behaviour/actions which they assume the leader has control over it and exhibited otherwise intentionally on targeted employees. Moreover, some undesirable behaviour of leaders is attributed to fundamental attribution errors i.e. situational factors.
Practical implications
A fully developed scale for assessing the hate-quotient for leaders is proposed. This research will facilitate the managers/leaders as to why some of the followers/employees hate them. This scale provides an opportunity for managers and leaders to introspect themselves for improved workplace relationships and not to encourage sunflower management that seeks to get submissive and aligned-thought employees around the leader.
Originality/value
The fact that the decisions taken by managers/leaders adversely affecting the employees are not always because of malice or wrong intentions but sometimes due to situational factors i.e. fundamental attribution error. Moreover, the scale act as a reference to evaluate the hate-for-leaders in the organizational context.