Kristy de Salas, Ian J. Lewis and Craig Huxley
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) exhibit limited understanding of their business processes. This lack of understanding limits the potential of these businesses and is a…
Abstract
Purpose
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) exhibit limited understanding of their business processes. This lack of understanding limits the potential of these businesses and is a direct contributor to the high failure rates of this sector of the economy. Research has suggested that existing BP methods to not support SMEs in gaining an improved understanding of their processes due to the high complexity and resource intensity of these tools, more suitable for deployment within a large business context. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on two qualitative case studies of medium-sized financial entities that employ a new approach, the critical process targeting method (CPTM), to improve their understanding of their processes.
Findings
In reviewing these two case studies, the authors find that the CPTM can be considered a useful tool in improving process understanding in SMEs, and can lead to the achievement of strategic goals. This paper, however, also describes a number of practical limitations that were encountered when employing the CPTM within the SME context.
Originality/value
This new contribution to theory adds significant and critical support to academia and practice in business process understanding where current methods are found to be too resource heavy for even some large organisations. These two case studies have also provided support for struggling management teams being overwhelmed by the need to understand business processes within their organisations. Published literature and the case study experience both suggest that medium-sized entities have difficulty understanding their business processes.
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Keywords
Kristy de Salas and Craig Huxley
Developing an organisational, business, or corporate strategy is an important process which sets the direction and the scope for the business, over a period of time. While any…
Abstract
Purpose
Developing an organisational, business, or corporate strategy is an important process which sets the direction and the scope for the business, over a period of time. While any organisation can create their own strategy, not all strategies are well executed and lead to business success. What is required is a process that provides a holistic understanding of an organisational strategy, and clear links between the elements of the strategy and the organisational processes that will be central to its execution. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes three case studies of medium-sized organisations that were the research context in which the methodology for developing and representing Strategy-to-Process Maps was developed and iteratively refined.
Findings
Each of these three case organisations had identified a need to better understand their strategic objectives by a stronger visual representation of the components of their strategy, as well as a need to identify how their daily operational tasks contributed to, or distracted from, the achievement of their strategic goals. These cases assisted in the creation of a method of both facilitating better understanding of strategy through visualisation, and better execution through linking strategy to process. This methodology resulted in the employees of these organisations gaining a much stronger understanding of the strategic directions of the organisation and improved the three elements of effective strategy execution: visibility; leverage and responsiveness.
Originality/value
Strategy-to-Process Maps provide a new way in which organisations can communicate without reliance on any specific strategy development methodology; and can execute their strategy more effectively by linking it closely with organisational processes.
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Kristi N. Lavigne, Victoria L. Whitaker, Dustin K. Jundt and Mindy K. Shoss
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between job insecurity and adaptive performance (AP), contingent on changes to core work tasks, which we position as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between job insecurity and adaptive performance (AP), contingent on changes to core work tasks, which we position as a situational cue to employees regarding important work behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Employees and their supervisors were invited to participate in the study. Supervisors were asked to provide ratings of employees’ AP and changes to core tasks; employees reported on job insecurity.
Findings
As predicted, changes to core tasks moderated the relationship between job insecurity and AP. Job insecurity was negatively related to AP for those experiencing low levels of change, but was not related to AP for those experiencing high levels of change. Counter to expectations, no main effect of job insecurity was found.
Research limitations/implications
This study employed a fairly small sample of workers from two organizations, which could limit generalizability.
Practical implications
The study identifies changes to core tasks as a boundary condition for the job insecurity–AP relationship. Findings suggest that organizations may not observe deleterious consequences of job insecurity on AP when changes to core tasks are high.
Originality/value
Few researchers have examined boundary conditions of the impact of job insecurity on AP. Furthermore, inconsistent findings regarding the link between job insecurity and AP have emerged. This study fills the gap and expands upon previous research by examining changes to core tasks as a condition under which job insecurity does not pose an issue for AP.