Process management tasks and barriers: functional to processes approach

Purpose – Migration from the traditional management model to the BPM (business process management) approach results in improved process performance. In order to promote BPM, it is necessary to have an organizational approach that defines the necessary tasks of the processes' project, day‐to‐day execution, and learning‐related tasks. In this aspect, there are difficulties and barriers to be confronted in a different way through organization. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance attributed to the tasks necessary for process management considering the way the management of these tasks and barriers found in order to change from functional management to process oriented management. Design/methodology/approach – A case study was developed on two companies from the services sector. In‐depth interviews with managers from the companies studied were conducted. Findings – It was identified that these companies found themselves at different levels of transition from the functional management process to process oriented management and that people and organizational cultures are presented in both organizations as the main barriers to changes within this management model. Research limitations/implications – This research is based on a broad bibliographical base in opposition to the limited capacity of empirical validation. Originality/value – The paper describes an empirical case study which refers to BPM tasks and to the barriers that will be transposed in order to promote business process management. The research investigates which BPM tasks are executed and the importance of each task and even the barriers against changing the management.