**Abstract**

The purpose of this study is to define process management as a requirement of organizational excellence in the twenty-first century business environment. The business environment in the twenty-first century has reached a new height as far as challenges are concerned. The Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences have shaped a new business environment that requires organizations and businesses to raise the bar for themselves in honoring their obligation to achieve excellence. This means that competitive advantage, quality service, and product are achieved through organizational excellence. How can process management help organizations and businesses achieve organizational excellence in such a hostile and turbulent business environment? Applying a conceptual approach, the study attempts to answer the question through a comprehensive literature review. Testable propositions have been formulated, action steps defined, and implications of the study established. By identifying workflow design (WFD), control and correction of workflow processes (CCWFP), monitoring of workflow processes (MWFP), and workflow promotion of process-related learning in organizations (WPPRLO) against the background of conceptualization, operationalization, and context, the study findings suggest that process management is indeed a requirement for organizational excellence in the twenty-first century business environment. Scholars and practitioners have the opportunity to confirm or disconfirm the validity of the assumptions and ideas presented in the study.

**Keywords:** twenty-first century, business environment, Covid-19, organizational excellence process management, product quality, service quality, workflow

### **1. Introduction**

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019 and its gradual spreading across the globe in 2020 urged countries to shut down businesses as the global efforts to fight the pandemic [1]. Such measures signaled the new height that the business environment in the twenty-first century has reached as far as challenges are concerned.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences have shaped a new business environment that has raised strain on the relationship between businesses, customers,

and suppliers requiring organizations and businesses to be at their very best if they are to survive in such an environment. In other words, the new business environment compels organizations and businesses to sustain their competitive advantage through excellence.

Twenty-first century organizational development (OD) scholars Harrington [2], Rad [3], Dahlgaard-Park [4], Brown [5], and Samawi et al. [6] identified process management (PM) as a critical success factor for organizational excellence (OE). Although much has been written about business process management (BPM), the concept of process management in organizations (PMO) is not widely understood, is far more complex than is commonly perceived.

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of process management as a requirement for organizational excellence. Six testable propositions about process management have presented that address the nature of process management and organizational excellence.

Based on a comprehensive literature review [7], the study begins with an examination of the complex nature of excellence and organizational excellence. After defining process management, the study identifies key elements considered integration facilitating factors and six propositions that practitioners and scholars can test to assess the nature of that process management. The study concludes by identifying five contributions and suggests opportunities for additional research.

#### **2. Organizational excellence: a conceptual framework**

Excellence is conceived as "superiority, greatness, distinction" [8]. To excel implies "to do or be better than; surpass; to show superiority, surpass others". In other words, excellence can describe, in the words of Paul, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise" [4].

Scholars and practitioners have scrutinized the word "excellence" in an attempt to establish its essence. From a practical perspective, countries and regions across the globe attempted to establish particular frameworks of excellence. The European foundation for quality management (EFQM), for instance, considers adding value for customers, creating a sustainable future, developing organizational capability, harnessing creativity and innovation, leading with vision, inspiration, and integrity, managing with agility, succeeding through the talent of people and sustaining outstanding results, as attributes of excellence [9]. In Australia, leadership, strategy and planning, data, information and knowledge, people, customer and market focus, innovation, quality and improvement, success, and sustainability are all regarded defining factors of the business excellence framework [10].

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the USA, considers leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resources focus, and process management as quality associated with excellence [11]. The same applies to the Canada Awards for Excellence program, which promotes leadership, governance, strategy, planning, customer experience, employee engagement, innovation, and wellness as qualities for excellence [12]. The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) is consistent with the above-mentioned frameworks of excellence by considering organization and its management, education, quality information, planning, analysis, standardization, control, quality assurance, and results as contributing factors to excellence [13]. It is evident that practitioners, by pursuing quality as an end, established excellence as means. Therefore, by establishing a framework of excellence it is more likely to have quality as an outcome.

*Process Management: A Requirement for Organizational Excellence in the Twenty-First Century… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101769*

While practitioners converged their views on the concept of excellence, OD scholars have over decades invested in research with a view of developing a framework for OE [5, 14–19].

For many scholars, such a framework encompasses the likes of performance of management, knowledge as a source of value creation, culture, and values of the organization, sustainable change, measures relating to leadership, processes, people, communication, and strategy to mention but a few.

Literature suggests that organizational effectiveness (OEf) was previously the focus of scholarly debates. In this respect, Yuchtman and Seashore consider the concept effectiveness deficient for making reference to goal attainment. For the authors when the term effectiveness is associated to the organization this should emphasize both the distinctiveness of the organization as an identifiable social structure and the interdependence of the organization with its environment [20]. The conceptual conflict amongst scholars led Connolly et al. to propose a "multiple-constituency" approach to the concept [21].

The proposed approach assumes that an organization's different constituencies will form different assessments of its effectiveness. Quinn and Rohrbaugh went further arguing in favor of what they refer to as "a competing values approach to organizational effectiveness" [22]. This approach encompasses three value dimensions including focus (task—people), structure (control—flexibility), and time (short-term—long-term).

Dragging the conceptual debates, Cameron's view is consistent with Quinn et al. by arguing that organizational effectiveness is a construct that is grounded in the values and preferences of evaluators [23]. Consequently, no single and correct concept exists. For Cameron, the approaches that emerged over time attempted to address specific purposes which prompted scholars to conceptualize effectiveness in the organization in various ways including matching the ideal characteristics of a bureaucratic organization, accomplishing goals, obtaining needed resources, satisfying important stakeholders, high quality internal processes, the presence of simultaneous opposites, producing flourishing and virtuousness. These are all useful approaches to assessing and producing valuable outcomes.

Significantly is the "4P" model (people' partnership, processes, and products). The model, by assuming that "excellent products and services are a result of building excellence into people, partnership and processes, and this requires a strong foundation—leadership", shifted the paradigm from organizational effectiveness (OEf) to organizational excellence—OE [4]. Interestingly, the "4P" model integrates both the mechanistic and organic approaches to organizational management pointing at leadership as the integration facilitating factor. The significance of the approach lies in the fact that OE can be achieved and sustained when variables from both the mechanistic and organic approaches complement one another.

Moreover, many research favors the organic approach for promoting the human resource dimension and its critical role in organization management. Such is the view of Alan Brown who affirms that "Organizations that fail to adopt an organic approach are unlikely to embed quality and excellence and engage both managers and employees. Without these key ingredients, sustainability is unlikely, and their quality efforts are likely to remain at the tool pusher and drifter stages" [5]. Importantly, the success of the organic approach is measured through the effectiveness of the mechanistic approach. Therefore, the need to establish well-functioning workflow processes that should guarantee the intended and expected quality as an outcome.
