An employee-centered perspective on business processes: measuring “healthy business processes” and their relationships with people and performance outcomes

Abstract

PurposeTraditional approaches to business processes and their management consider the “people dimension” as an antecedent of process performance. The authors complemented this approach by considering employees as process perceivers and thus taking an employee-centered perspective on business processes. The authors investigated dimensions of healthy business processes, that is, processes which, while promoting performance, foster employee well-being.Design/methodology/approachBased on a qualitative dataset and two quantitative studies, the authors developed and validated a scale for healthy business processes, interpreted it from a salutogenic perspective and tested relationships with people and performance outcomes.FindingsThe scale comprises four factors reflecting the three dimensions of the salutogenic concept “sense of coherence”: manageability was represented by the factors process tools and process flexibility; comprehensibility was represented by the factor process description; and meaningfulness was represented by the factor management support. The scale and its subscales were significantly related to people and performance outcomes.Originality/valueThe authors propose that health-oriented business process management and performance-oriented business process management are two components of an integrated business process management that favors neither a functionalist, efficiency-oriented approach nor an employee-oriented approach, but takes both approaches and their interaction equally into account in the sense of person-process fit.