An Innovative Socio-Technical Network Approach Supporting The Business Process Management
An Innovative Socio-Technical Network Approach Supporting The Business Process Management

Author(s): Anna Ujwary-Gil, Natalia Potoczek
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Economy
Published by: Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze
Keywords: Socio-technical networks; business process management; network approach; visualization
Summary/Abstract: Purpose:The aim of this article isto combine innovatively two research areas: the network approach and the business process management. Moreover, the article indicates the possibilities ofindicating business processes in an organization; identifying and analyzing socio-technical networks comprising information networks, knowledge networks, task networks and resource networks; determining the socio-technical potential for process managementfrom the network approach perspective. The paper proffers an innovative methodological application of including processes in a network analysis. The case is an illustration of this application. Design/methodology/approach:The study involved a total of 30employees of amedical organization operating in the health sector(N = 30) out of 30 provided for testing, which accounts fora total of 100% of respondents. According to the research network, the sample covered the entire population. We used an interview and a surveyresearch composed of four questions. Also,the Organizational Risk Analyzer (ORA LITE) software was used. Findings: The article presents business processes of a medical company divided into knowledge and skills, tasks and resources necessary to perform them. It identifies socio-technical networks, calculates the density of relations in business processes and the degree of their centrality. It allows us to look at business processes from the relation network point of view. Research/practical implications:Tying the network approach with the business process management is a promising direction in searching for new solutions, both for researchers and managers, which can be appliedtomanaging an organization. This interdisciplinary combination points at the possibilities of understanding the network of relations existing in an organization from the perspective of business processes.It allows indicatingthe degree of interactions occurring between particular nods within business processes. Originality/value:The article uses the visualizations from ORA LITE software to group nods within business processes. We used various indicators: density, centrality, E/Iindex or Cheeger value

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