Adopting Process Management - the Importance of Recognizing the Organizational Transformation

The purpose of this study is to investigate what happens within an organization when a process view of the business is adopted. With the example of an empirical case, we aim to illustrate: how members of the organization make sense of process management; what contributions members of the organization consider to be the result of adopting a process view; and the relationship between the functional and the process structure. The empirical base in this study is one of Sweden's largest purchasing organizations within the public sector. The results are drawn from interviews with the process owners and a survey to all members involved in process teams. The case findings reveal an ambiguous image of process management. At the same time as process management solved specific organizational problems, it generated new dilemmas. It is argued that it is more rewarding to consider the adoption of the process view a 'social negotiation' rather than the result of planned implementation. The study also highlights that the meaning of process management is not anything given but something being created, and its negotiation and translation into organizational practice is open-ended. Furthermore, the study gives an illustration of the conflict between the adopted process view and the existing functional organization.