Business process management: a missing link in business education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the inadequacies of current business education in the context of “process”. It presents an analysis of the background to business processes in historical perspective and posits the significance of business management for today's business education. It argues the importance of business processes and business process management (BPM) in the context of the current and emerging information technologies (IT) and business education and highlights its ability to offer a missing link between business, IT and strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The approach involves analysis and review of the literature and analysis of secondary data. Findings – Even though business processes have been the subject of formal study from multiple perspectives for a long time, since the start of industrial age, processes still are not well understood, left unmanaged and poorly executed. With business schools teaching primarily function specific and narrow and IT schools focused on narrow technical skills, learning and understanding “process view” and “integration” is left to the individual student or academic, this study observes. It posits the significance of BPM and highlights its ability to provide the missing link to business education. It reports on the strategies employed by business schools and discusses the challenges in BPM education. Research limitations/implications – Recognising the importance of BPM by business schools and embedding the BPM concepts and tools in a unified integrated curriculum across the business school with an inter‐disciplinary focus is challenging for business schools. Further studies, investigating how practitioners perceive this gap and on the effectiveness of different strategies of teaching BPM, are important. Practical implications – These findings will help practitioners in understanding the gap between university education and practice and to develop appropriate training and development strategies. Originality/value – The paper provides an analysis of the concept of “process” from an historical perspective and posits BPM as a missing link in business education that delivers “integration” and “process orientation” to business students.