Business Process Inconsistencies in Polish Small and Medium Enterprises

According to data from the European Commission, small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) represent 99% of all businesses and in the past five years have created around 85% of the new jobs in the EU. Globalisation, dynamic changes in the market, and changes of customer requirements are causing SMEs to be more inclined to implement Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives. They are becoming increasingly aware that an improvement of competitiveness can be achieved through a shift from a functional to a process-oriented approach.

The flat structures of SMEs should make it easier for them to shift towards process-orientation, but they adopt BPM practices rather slowly comparing to large companies. The main barrier of BPM implementation by SMEs are limited resources in terms of money, time, and skills. The results of empirical study show that an organization’s culture is a main source of inconsistencies and a critical success factor in the implementation and development of BPO. The majority of the problems in Polish SMEs belongs are related to process ownership, managerial authority, and excessively complicated processes. Besides, managers spotted problems related to organisational culture and employee attitudes. Moreover, the achieved results indicate that the process description is a well-known and obvious aspect of introducing the process-based approach to SMEs. This aspect is not perceived by managers as a barrier to BPO implementation on any maturity level.

Full text available: Jurczuk A., Business Process Inconsistencies in Polish Small and Medium Enterprises. Economic and Social Development : ESD’2017: 23rd International Scientific Conference, Madrid, September 15-16, 2017