Green Business Process Management: Towards the Sustainable Enterprise PDF
Preview Green Business Process Management: Towards the Sustainable Enterprise
Green Business Process Management . Jan vom Brocke (cid:129) Stefan Seidel (cid:129) Jan Recker Editors Green Business Process Management Towards the Sustainable Enterprise Preface by Richard T. Watson Editors JanvomBrocke JanRecker StefanSeidel QueenslandUniversityofTechnology UniversityofLiechtenstein InformationSystemsDiscipline InstituteofInformationSystems Brisbane,QLD Vaduz Australia Liechtenstein ISBN978-3-642-27487-9 e-ISBN978-3-642-27488-6 DOI10.1007/978-3-642-27488-6 SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2012933960 # Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2012 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting, reproductiononmicrofilmorinanyotherway,andstorageindatabanks.Duplicationofthispublication orpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawofSeptember9, 1965,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Violations areliabletoprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnotimply, evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantprotective lawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Foreword Green is the new Black. Of course, not in the sense of a new fashion wave or the go-toresponseforcorporatebrandingefforts;butinsteadGreenisepitomizingan eco-awaremovementthathaspushedsustainabilityintothetoptenlistofbusiness movementsinthenewmillennium. Whatusedtobeaboutiquemarketfortourismandpoliticalactivistshasbecome probably the biggest business revolution since the e-commerce boom. Public and privateorganizationsalikepushtowards“sustainable”solutionsandpractices.That pushispartlytriggeredbytheimmensereputationalgainsassociatedwithbranding yourorganizationas“green,”andpartlybyemergingsocietal,legal,andconstitu- tional concerns and pressures that force and encourage organizations to become economically,socially,andecologicallymoresustainable. MIT’sPeterSenge,forexample,callsforthe“necessaryrevolution”–onethatis not merely political but rather induces a paradigmatic shift towards a sustainable economy.Obviously,challengesatagloballevelcannotbesolvedbyratherreactive solutions that target the mere symptoms rather than the underlying imbalances and potential misbelieves. What is needed is a fundamental, paradigmatic shift. Organizationsarehenceforcedtoalsorecognizetheenvironmentalimplicationsof resource consumption and social cost caused by their processes – the processes’ ecologicalandsocialfootprint. Withthisbook,weintendtoimmersedeeperintotheroleofbusinessprocesses and their management in order to create an environmentally sustainable society. Business Process Management (BPM) has emerged as a comprehensive solution portfolio for businesses to improve performance as well as compliance of their organizationalworksystems,andalsohasthepowertoinnovateandcontinuously transformbusinessesandcross-organizationalvaluechains.WhileBPMhastradi- tionally focused on economic imperatives, most notably time, cost, quality, and flexibility, organizations now increasingly recognize its relevance for designing andimplementing“green”processes.Becauseofthispotential,thisbookdiscusses theemergentroleofBPMinthecontextofecologicalsustainability.Wethusaimto providepioneersofthefieldwithaforumwheretheydisseminatetheirthoughtsto abroaderaudience. v vi Foreword Wewishtothankallauthorsfortheirvaluablecontributionstothisbook.Many expertsfromthefieldsofBusinessProcessManagementandInformationSystems showed great enthusiasm to submit their work. It is our particular pleasure that Richard T. Watson, who has been pioneering the area of Green IS and Energy Informatics, provided a preface to this book. Rick’s contribution to the field has been very influential to our own work. We would further like to thank Clemens Malt and Kathi B€uchel for their great support in editing this book and Christian Rauscher at Springer, who has been of great support throughout the publishing process. Wehopethatyouwillenjoytheremainderofthisbook,finditinspirational,and that it will serve you well in your own quest towards more environmental sustainabilityinbothyourprivateandprofessionallife. Vaduz/Brisbane JanvomBrocke StefanSeidel JanRecker Preface Humans have been designing processes for millions of years. The process for creating a cutting instrument by striking a hammerstone against another rock to create a sharp-edged flake is perhaps two million years old (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011a). If it is particularly useful, a new process is added to the cultural repertoire of a society and passed on to successive generations. The gradual accumulation of such processes over many years has created today’s civilization. This development of a societal endowment of processes was inter- twined with the development of information systems. In order for processes to be usedwithinonegenerationandinheritedbyanother,thereneedstobeameansof communicatingaprocessfromonepersonorgrouptoanother. Gestures, astrongcandidateforthefirstformofinformationsystem,appearto beinnatetohumans(Tomasello,2008).When inacountrywherewedon’tspeak the language, we revert to pointing and posturing to communicate. Thus, we can imagine one person using gestures to show another person how to use a hammer- stone, much as we would do it today. When speech emerged some time after the originofgesturing,humanswouldhavefounditeasiertocommunicateprocesses, andmightwellhavecombinedgesturesandspokencommandstoachieveprocess transfer. Early process management in a subsistence economy was focused on cultural transmission. Better processes (e.g., how to make fire or cook meat) increased a tribe’s survival prospects. Though there were seemingly cases where a society became so small it gradually lost its ability to transfer processes. For example, the evidence suggests that when they became separated from mainland Australia, the Tasmanian aboriginals over generations forgot the process for makingfire(Richerson&Boyd,2004). The emergence of agricultural economies layered a new dominant concern, production, on top of survival. Farmers created a new set of processes centered on production of crops and animals (e.g., how to plant a seed, how to care for a cow). Writing paralleled the emergence of agricultural economies, as farming societies needed to record and collect data to manage their affairs. Processes (e.g.,astronomicalobservation)werealsodevelopedtocreatecalendars,acritical information system for deciding when to plant a crop. Thus we see that new vii viii Preface processes create a demand for supporting processes, and the accumulation of pro- cessesmultiplied.Thereisevidenceoftheearliestwritingscriptsbeingusedtorecord processes,suchasmedicalprocedures(EncyclopædiaBritannicaOnline,2011b). This pattern of process accumulation continues throughout the agricultural era andgainedsignificantimpetus withthearrivalofindustrialeconomies, beginning in the United Kingdom in the eighteenth century. The focus still remained on production, but the shift was from growing food to manufacturing goods, and we sawaflourishofnewproductionandtransportationprocesses.Societyhadalready recognizedthevalueofnewprocesses.Asearlyas1421,apatenthadbeengranted inItaly,andtheU.S.ConstitutionauthorizedCongresstoestablishanationalpatent system (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011c). The process of patenting inventionsisperhapsthebeginningofthesystematicprocessmanagement.Society hadestablishedapublicwayofdescribingprocessesandproducts. Astheindustrialrevolutionaccelerated,newinformationsystems,whichcanbe thoughtofasbundlesofintegratedprocessesforconveyinginformation,emerged. Accounting,asetofprocessesforrecordingfinancialtransactionsandestablishing thevalueofassetsandliabilities,isoneofthenewsystemstomaterializeearlyin the revolution, with the first chartered accounting society being established in Edinburghin1854.Productionisstilladominantsocietalissue,andtodaywesee elaborateprocessmanagementsystemsintheformofEnterpriseResourcePlanning (ERP) and Project Management Systems, among many others, that make today’s productionsystemshighlyefficient. Advanced economies are now ensconced in the service era, with for example over 75% of U.S. workers employed in this sector. Service has become the dominant logic for many firms (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). High quality service requiresthereliableexecutionofmultipleprocessesoverthousandsofencounters bymanycustomerfacingemployees(e.g.,afastfoodstore,anairline,ahospital). Consequently, process management has grown in importance, and gained consid- erable attention in the mid 1990s with the surge of interest in business process reengineering (Hammer, 1990; Hammer & Champy, 1993). The field has pros- pered, and the breadth and depth of scholarship on business process management (BPM) is readily apparent in a recent compendium (vom Brocke & Rosemann, 2010a,2010b). As well as serving existing customers, firms are very concerned with how to create new customers. There is an oversupply of many consumer products (e.g., cars) and companies compete to identify services and product features that will attractcustomers.Theyareconcernedwithdeterminingwhattypesofcustomersto recruitandfindingoutwhattheywant.Asaresult,wehaveseentheriseofbusiness analyticsandcustomerrelationshipmanagementtoaddressthisdominantissue. We are in transition to a new economy, sustainability, where the dominant issue becomes one of assessing and mitigating environmental impacts because, after several centuries of industrialization, atmospheric CO levels are causing 2 temperaturestorise,oceanstoacidify,andicecapstomelt.Furthermore,wehave to learn how to use the limited resources of one planet to meet the needs of six billion people with some level of equity within and across generations. Preface ix Asaresult,anewclassofapplicationisemerging,suchasenvironmentalmanage- ment systems, energy informatics (Watson, Boudreau, & Chen, 2010) and UPS’s telematicsproject(Watson,Boudreau,Li,&Levis,2010).Thesenewsystemswill alsoinclude,forexample,supportforunderstandingenvironmentalimpactthrough simulation of energy consuming and production systems, optimization of energy systems,anddesignoflowimpactproductionandcustomerservicesystems. The preceding discussion is summarized in the following figure. Notice that dominant issues do not disappear but rather aggregate in layers, so tomorrow’s businesses will be concerned with survival, production, customer service, and sustainability. Consequently, a firm’s need for BPM never diminishes, and each newlayercreatesanothersetofprocessneeds. Table1 Societalfocus(Source:(Watson,forthcoming)) Aswepreparetomeetthedemandsofthesustainabilityera,itisveryappropri- atethatthisbookispublished.ItisoneofthefirstbookstorecognizethatBPMhas a critical role to play in creating a sustainable society. Society,across the various types of economies, has shown an increasing concern for managing its processes, andnowitneedstobeevenmoreattentivetoprocesses.Wehavelearnedthatwell designed processes contribute to the efficient utilization of scarce resources. We havealsolearnedthatprocessescanberedesignedtomakedramaticreductionsin the use of resources. For example, U.S. based carpet manufacturer, Interfaces, shifted from selling to leasing carpet, and a concomitant redesign of its business processes led to recycling of discarded carpet rather than dumping it in a landfill (Anderson,1999).Wehavetolearnhowtoredesignmanyaspectsofcontemporary life to become a sustainable economy, and BPM will be a critical driver in this redesign.Indeed,weneedasetofmetaprocessesforapplyingBPMtosustainability problems.Thisbookisanessentialstepinthatdirection. x Preface I warmly applaud Jan, Stefan, and Jan for their foresight in seeing the critical connectionbetweenBPMandsustainability,andtakingactiontoadvancescholar- shiponthislinkage.Wecanthankthemfortheirperspicacitybyapplyingthemany soundideasinthisbooktocreateagreenersociety. Athens,Georgia,USA RichardT.Watson Anderson, R. (1999). Mid-course correction: Toward a sustainable enterprise: The interface model.Atlanta,GA:PeregrinzillaPress EncyclopædiaBritannicaOnline.(2011a).Handtool.EncyclopædiaBritannica,fromhttp://www. britannica.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/EBchecked/topic/254115/hand-tool. EncyclopædiaBritannicaOnline.(2011b).Historyofpublishing.EncyclopædiaBritannica,from http://www.britannica.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/EBchecked/topic/482597/publishing. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. (2011c). Patent. Encyclopædia Britannica, from http://www. britannica.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu/EBchecked/topic/446287/patent. Hammer,M.(1990).Reengineeringwork:Don’tautomate,obliterate.HarvardBusinessReview, 68(4),104–112. Hammer,M.,&Champy,J.(1993).Reengineeringthecorporation.NewYork,NY:Harper. Richerson,P.,&Boyd,R.(2004).Notbygenesalone:Howculturetransformedhumanevolution. Chicago,IL:UniversityOfChicagoPress. Tomasello,M.(2008).Originsofhumancommunication.Cambridge,MA:MITPress. Vargo,S.,&Lusch,R.(2004).Evolvingtoanewdominantlogicformarketing.TheJournalof Marketing,68(1),1–17.doi:citeulike-article-id:7899525. vomBrocke,J.,&Rosemann,M.(Eds.).(2010a).Handbookonbusinessprocessmanagement1: Introduction,methods,andinformationsystems.Berlin/Heidelberg:Springer. vomBrocke,J.,&Rosemann,M.(Eds.).(2010b).Handbookonbusinessprocessmanagement2: strategicalignment,governance,peopleandculture.Berlin/Heidelberg:Springer. Watson, R. T. (forthcoming). Data management: databases and organizations (6th ed.). New York:JohnWiley. Watson,R.T.,Boudreau,M.-C.,Li,S.,&Levis,J.(2010).TelematicsatUPS:Enroutetoenergy informatics.MISQExecutive,9(1),1–11. Watson, R. T., Boudreau, M., & Chen, A. (2010). Information systems and environmentally sustainabledevelopment:EnergyinformaticsandnewdirectionsfortheIScommunity.MIS Quarterly,34(1),23–38.
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