Achieving higher levels of business process improvement: A case study

The research topic has significant implications on organisations that aspire to reach higher levels of improvement by continuously creating diverse values to their stakeholders and building unique Business Process Improvement (BPI) capabilities. We present an a-priori model derived from well-known theories and domains such as stakeholder and organisational capabilities theories. The model mainly posits that the degree of key stakeholder requirements alignment and the BPI organisational capabilities together impact the level of improvement achieved in BPI projects. These factors are in turn impacted by, for example, centrality, communication, culture. The model is tested using a case study in an Australian higher education institution, relying primarily on semi-structured interviews. The testing of the model has uncovered a number of interesting insights. For example, continuous top management support, which was posited to be an antecedent of BPI organisational capabilities, was found to be strongly related to key stakeholders requirements' alignment and risk management. As such, top management can play a more effective role in BPI initiatives in achieving higher levels of improvement. The case also found that better levels of: time to perform processes, accessibility, maintainability, accuracy, ease of use, consistency, quality, and end users' satisfaction could measure the levels of improvement.