Value-driven Process Research Articles

Optimization of Business Processes Through BPM Methodology: A Case Study on Data Analysis and Performance Improvement

This study explores the application of the BPM lifecycle to optimize the market analysis process within the market intelligence department of a major energy company. The semi-structured, virtual nature of the process necessitated careful adaptation of BPM methodology, starting with process discovery through data collection, modeling, and validation. Qualitative analysis, including value-added and root-cause analysis, revealed inefficiencies. The redesign strategy focused on selective automation using Python 3.10 scripts and Power BI dashboards, incorporating techniques such as linear programming and forecasting to improve process efficiency and quality while maintaining flexibility. Post-implementation, monitoring through a questionnaire showed positive results, though ongoing interviews were recommended for sustained performance evaluation. This study highlights the value of BPM methodology in enhancing decision-critical processes and offers a model for adaptable, value-driven process improvements in complex organizational environments.

The Discursive Construction of ‘Good Parenting’ by Romanian Parenting Influencers

This article analyzes promotional and educational content published online by newly emerged parenting influencers in Romania to endorse parenting education programs, workshops, seminars, or books. The paper aims to investigate how these programs construct ‘good parenting’ practices at a discursive level, what (de)legitimation strategies they use to promote products or services, and how they shape power relations between experts and parents. The study uses a multidimensional thematic, critical, and pragmatic discourse analysis approach. The results show that, through discursive strategies, influencers portray ‘good parenting’ as an anxiety and value-driven process. This approach is rooted in a parental determinist view that emphasizes the influence of parental actions on children’s health and well-being. On the other hand, parenting expert influencers depict the ‘good parent’ as a ‘conscious parent’ (a parent that is both child-conscious, and attentive to their own needs and emotions) who should reform old parenting practices to ensure a secure relationship with their children and correct old parenting mistakes. The paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the changing nature of parental culture in post-industrial countries, with a particular focus on Romania.

Revitalising project management office operations in an engineering-service contractor organisation: a key performance indicator based performance management approach

PurposeExisting studies on project performance improvement mainly investigate project management (PM) execution processes. Limited publications investigate the project management office's (PMO) proficiency in facilitating proper PM practice. This paper identifies the key performance indicators (KPI) of PMO operations and develops a KPI-based performance management system (KPMS) for revitalising PMO performance for an engineering-service contractor (ESC).Design/methodology/approachA four-phase study was initiated at an ESC in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). Phase-1 established historical project performance and PMO challenges via documentary analysis. Empirical data from the PMO staff and management was acquired at Phase-2 to determine PMO process value-drivers and strategic roles. Phase-3 comprised the development of a modified PMO process and the KPMS, whereas Phase-4 evaluated the efficacy of the PMO process and the KPMS framework in a trial period.FindingsThe ESC's existing PMO process lacked significant value-drivers of its PM practice. The company also overlooked strategic PMO roles. Trial implementation of the modified PMO process achieved improved project performance, which stakeholders attributed to the value-driven processes and guidance provided by the KPMS. The KPMS, when used in tandem with Earned Value Management (EVM) index score review revealed core performance aspects that could facilitate continuous improvement of the PMO process at the ESC.Practical implicationsFindings provide an adequate basis for policy creation regarding PMO performance evaluation and guidance for companies contemplating a similar endeavour. A viable model for PMO performance management and improvement is proffered. The findings and the model would provide a platform for subsequent research in the areas of PMO development and business process improvement.Originality/valueThis is the first study conducted to obtain management and practitioners' inputs on developing a PMO performance management framework in a project-based contractor organisation in T&T. Various PMO challenges and implications of improvements specific to engineering-service contractors and similar organisations were determined.

Could All Life Be Sentient?

This paper concerns biopsychism, the position that feeling is a vital activity of all organisms or living beings. It evaluates biopsychism specifically from the perspective of the enactive conception of life and life–mind continuity. Does the enactive conception of life as fundamentally a value-constituting and value-driven process imply a conception of life as sentient of value? Although a plausible case can be made, there remains a conceptual and inferential gap between differential responsiveness to value and hedonic value or affective valence. Nevertheless, the case for zoopsychism — that animals are the only sentient living beings — over biopsychism is also inconclusive.

Exploring Social Innovation (SI) Within the Research Contexts of Higher Education, Healthcare, and Welfare Services—A Scoping Review

Introduction: Nordic countries face societal challenges for which social innovation may represent solutions. The aim of this scoping review is to explore the concept of social innovation within the research contexts of higher education, ealthcare, and welfare services. Method: A scoping review methodology was used, including a literature search and the identification of eligible studies published between 2007 and 2019, in addition to data extraction and synthesis. Forty-three studies were included in this review. Results: Across the research contexts, social innovation is conceptualized as a set of novel, creative, human-centred, and value-driven processes aiming to bring about change. Qualitative research methods dominate social innovation research. In welfare services, social innovation concerns the relationship between policy and praxis, new forms of leadership and management, and the promotion of societal inclusion and cohesion. Social innovation in healthcare comprises the use of technology to digitalize service, enhance patients’ well-being, and improve service quality. In higher education, social innovation research focuses on educational reforms involving non-profit stakeholders. Discussion: Social innovation is a multifaceted concept related to change at the organizational or societal level, often with various stakeholders working together to create improvements. The lack of a common definition and framework of social innovation makes this concept difficult to measure or quantify, reflecting the dominance of qualitative research methods in the selected research contexts. Across these research contexts, social innovation can be defined and used for various research purposes, which are often political and value-based, with the latter connected to the common good and people’s well-being. Moreover, few social innovation studies have been performed in Nordic countries.

Mapping value clusters of additive manufacturing on design strategies to support part identification and selection

PurposeAdditive manufacturing (AM) allows companies to create additional value in the processes of new product development and order fulfillment. One of the challenges for engineers is to identify suitable parts and applications for additive manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between value creation and the design process. The implications of this relation provide an orientation on the methods for identifying parts and applications for additive manufacturing.Design/methodology/approachMapping the value clusters of AM on design strategies allows determining the expected degree of change in design. A classification into major and minor design changes is introduced to describe the predictability of the impact of AM on past performance and business model. The ability to predict the future properties of an AM part determines the suitability of identification and selection methods from literature. The mapping is validated by an identification process that creates a shortlist of potential AM parts based on the strategic decision for a value cluster. Shortlisted parts are then evaluated based on the criteria technology readiness, required post-processing, customer benefit and manufacturer benefit.FindingsThe mapping of value clusters on expected design changes determines the type of selection process. For minor design changes, automated part identification serves as a powerful tool while major design changes require the judgment of skilled engineers.Research limitations/implicationsThe mapping of value clusters to design strategies and degree of change in design is based on empirical observations and conclusions. The mapping has been validated in an industrial context in different identification and selection processes. Nevertheless the versatility of AM and industrial environments impede a universal validity of high-level concepts.Practical implicationsThis value-driven process of identification and selection was applied in technology transfer projects and proved to be useful for AM novices and experts. The mapping supports the identification and selection process, as well as the general product development process by providing an indication of the design effort for implementing AM.Originality/valueThe novel mapping links the economic domain of value creation to the engineering domain of design strategies to provide guidance in the selection of economically and technically suitable parts for additive manufacturing.

An integrated framework of enterprise information systems in smart manufacturing system via business process reengineering

Enterprise information systems play a significant role in the Industry 4.0 era and are the crucial component to realize smart manufacturing systems. However, traditional enterprise information systems have some limits: (1) lack of complete information, (2) only satisfy limited business needs, and (3) lack of seamless integration, business intelligence, value-driven processes, and dynamic optimization. Clearly, the existing enterprise information systems are unable to satisfy the requirements for smart manufacturing systems: (1) autonomous operation, (2) sustainable values, and (3) self-optimization. In addition, smart manufacturing systems have become more efficient and effective, demanding for seamless information flow in enterprise information systems, knowledge, and data-driven accurately decision. Therefore, a new enterprise information systems framework is needed to bridge gaps between the requirements for traditional manufacturing system and smart manufacturing system. In this article, the integrative framework is proposed based on the business process reengineering, lean thinking, and intelligent management methods, with inclusion of six enterprise information systems aspects to provide upgrading guidelines from traditional manufacturing to smart manufacturing. The procedure of this method contains three steps: (1) it identifies requirements and acquires best practices using AS-IS model, (2) it redesigns six aspects of enterprise information systems using TO-BE model, and (3) it proposes a new enterprise information systems framework. Finally, the proposed framework is validated by real cases.

What is the value of talent management? Building value-driven processes within a talent management architecture

The paper uses two concepts to organize the talent management literature: talent philosophies and a theory of value. It introduces the notion of talent management architectures and first analyses four talent management philosophies and the different claims they make about the value of individual talent and talent management architectures to demonstrate the limitations of human capital theory in capturing current developments. Having demonstrated the complexity of issues being researched, it then synthesises these back down into a theory of value, and develops a framework based on four separate value-generating processes (value creation, value capture, value leverage and value protection). This framework draws upon a number of non-HR literatures, such as those on value creation, the RBV perspective, dynamic capabilities, and global knowledge management, and its use to understand the nature of value and how this might inform the design of any talent management system or architecture. The paper articulates 14 research propositions that the field now needs to prove and suggests how research might now address these.

Which research in design creativity and innovation? Let us not forget the reality of companies

Studying design creativity and innovation from practical perspectives for companies requires both a good understanding of the company ecosystem and its inner processes contributing to delivered innovations and a rigorous design research methodology to provide effective design models, methods, and platforms that are truly effective in the context of a company. Working in an industrial engineering laboratory, we advocate a more systemic vision of design creativity and innovation in company ecosystems. We present in this paper an attempt to develop and make professional an innovation engineering. Our research works are illustrated along the different research topics of an innovation process. We start by a recent survey on innovation practice and organizational models led in 28 large companies. The lessons learned about this survey reinforce our belief that there is a need for a new method in agile management of radical innovation projects in company contexts. We currently develop, test, and apply such a methodology named Radical Innovation Design ® (RID). Its effectiveness has been evaluated through a large-scale evaluation of the project outcomes for the company. Two extensions of RID have been proposed and deployed in company contexts: a selection procedure for innovation clusters and a value-driven process for airplane development projects.

Towards Sustainable Groundwater Use: Setting Long‐Term Goals, Backcasting, and Managing Adaptively

The sustainability of crucial earth resources, such as groundwater, is a critical issue. We consider groundwater sustainability a value-driven process of intra- and intergenerational equity that balances the environment, society, and economy. Synthesizing hydrogeological science and current sustainability concepts, we emphasize three sustainability approaches: setting multigenerational sustainability goals, backcasting, and managing adaptively. As most aquifer problems are long-term problems, we propose that multigenerational goals (50 to 100 years) for water quantity and quality that acknowledge the connections between groundwater, surface water, and ecosystems be set for many aquifers. The goals should be set by a watershed- or aquifer-based community in an inclusive and participatory manner. Policies for shorter time horizons should be developed by backcasting, and measures implemented through adaptive management to achieve the long-term goals. Two case histories illustrate the importance and complexity of a multigenerational perspective and adaptive management. These approaches could transform aquifer depletion and contamination to more sustainable groundwater use, providing groundwater for current and future generations while protecting ecological integrity and resilience.

Sustaining ECOWAS In The Dynamic Confluence Of Regional Market Constraints

This paper discusses the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a concept founded and deeply rooted in the market and economic integration of the participating countries, as well as a model frame for the larger, if more ambitious, integration of the entire continent. It contends that if effectively implemented, sub-Saharan Africa would experience a huge transition that would tremendously transform its participation in globalization so significantly than is otherwise the case today. In this paper, we outline the contending dynamics and constraints in the sub-region. From this premise, it focuses on the market integration challenges facing ECOWAS as it identifies the institutional, structural and infrastructural constraints, with their backgrounds and origins in the colonial antecedents of the member countries. It is our contention that effective economic integration (substantially lacking at present) requires the development of core human “facilitators”, as well as institutional and infrastructural convergence and compatibility in functional market structures. While we note that the need, and indeed urgency, to fully integrate the sub-region is hampered by the lack of a realistic timetable or framework for implementation, we also note the lack of prioritization of integratable policy options. In this paper, however, we have not addressed what or which policy options should enjoy sequential priority in the realization of full economic integration, even though such criticality is noted. The failure of full economic integration more than 25 years after inception speaks to larger underlying constraint components within and without the sub-region that must be addressed. The futility of an integration initiate with such disparate and divergent in-country policy initiatives cannot be over-emphasized. As a process, regional economic integration is a value-driven process that can potentially deliver benefits to consumers and present firms with new markets, as well as challenges. Hopefully, addressing these constraints would persuade a holistic and more optimistic assessment of the sub-region (as opposed to individual country assessment) as an alternative location that is sufficiently attractive in its competitive offer and sensitivity to Foreign Direct Investment.

Anatomy of value and value-driven processes in business organizations

Anatomy of value and value-driven processes in business organizations

Imagination and the Meaningful Brain

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum:\nMind, Brain, and ImaginationFull AccessImagination and the Meaningful BrainJOHANNES PANTEL, M.D., Ph.D., JOHANNES PANTELSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Ph.D., Frankfurt, GermanyPublished Online:22 Dec 2014https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.161.10.1938AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail The main questions addressed in this book are as old as the history of philosophy. How does matter becomes imagination? How is it possible to gain knowledge about the outer world as well as the internal mental states of other subjects? What are the unique characteristics of human experience when compared with the experience of other species? Arnold H. Modell, a clinical professor of psychiatry, approaches these topics from the perspective of a psychoanalyst. Accordingly, psychoanalytical constructs like the unconscious, repression, or the self play central roles in his argument. He claims (and exemplifies) that only an epistemic pluralism, including knowledge from cognitive science, neurobiology, philosophy of language, linguistics, and psychoanalysis, has the potential to find appropriate answers to a scientific problem as complex as the human mind/brain.Starting out with a criticism of the neo-Cartesian concept that defines human cognition as a mere representation of reality, he claims that construction of meaning is the most distinguished task of the human brain. Construction of meaning, however, is quite different from processing of information. Rather, it involves an interactive, selective, and value-driven process that cannot adequately be understood without considering an individual’s basic (bodily) needs, personal history, and previous experiences as well as emotions and feelings (which operate as markers of value).Construction of meaning requires the use of metaphor. In contrast to any other species, only humans possess the capacity to use metaphor as a basic cognitive tool to generate meaning. The (unconscious) metaphoric process enables us to transfer meaning between dissimilar domains (by means of similarity). More precisely, metaphor (which finds its source originally in the body) provides the link between conscious experience and unconscious memory, leading to a recontextualization of memory with respect to present experience. In fact, metaphor is the interpreter of unconscious memory and thus an inevitable tool to interpret, displace, and transform our feelings. Against this background, Modell convincingly demonstrates that many of the most distinguished human facilities, including self-reflection, fantasy, imaginative anticipation of the future, intentionality, and the capacity to empathically anticipate another subject’s mind (theory of mind), critically rely on an unimpaired faculty for metaphoric thought.In my opinion, Imagination and the Meaningful Brain makes particularly valuable and stimulating reading for researchers from fields of objective neuroscience as well as for biological psychiatrists (as I am). It reminds us that we will never fully understand and disentangle the secrets of the human mind without considering the subjective (first-person) and the intersubjective (second-person) perspective. Although exclusion of these aspects might leave us with explanations embedded in greater scientific certainty, the danger is to “throw out the baby with the bath water,” resulting in an oversimplification and, finally, dehumanization of the mind. Similarly, researchers primarily using qualitative methods to explore the human mind (phenomenologists, psychoanalysts, etc.) are encouraged by this book to perceive and acknowledge recent results from an objective neuroscience point of view (instead of neglecting or combating them in a biased manner). Indeed, Modell’s book suggests that an integrative view is the most fruitful and satisfying approach.Of course, like all other previous attempts, this essay does not give a final answer to the above-mentioned philosophical questions. It is nonetheless an intriguing and modern approach to the topic that has the potential to leave the reader with a broadened horizon and a host of inspiring thoughts. This book is certainly food for thought, and I recommend reading it.Reprints are not available; however, Book Forum reviews can be downloaded at http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org.By Arnold H. Modell. Cambridge, Mass., Bradford Books (MIT Press), 2003, 253 pp., $32.00. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 161Issue 10 October 2004Pages 1938-1938 Metrics PDF download History Published online 22 December 2014 Published in print 1 October 2004

Developing indicators of sustainability: US experience

Sustainability indicators integrate environmental, social, and economic factors such that the complex cause and-effect relationships between these multiple factors can be more readily investigated. The whole systems approach of sustainable development differs from traditional environmentalism by its inclusion of economic and social factors. The selection of sustainability indicators will therefore inevitably be a human value-driven process. Environmental health will nonetheless be paramount. Empirical studies in the USA have found that states with lower pollution levels and more environmental regulation have healthier economies and fewer disparities in income between economic classes (Templet, 1995). In construction, indicators of sustainable construction are a necessary parallel to the macro-national and regional-scale indicators measuring society's movement toward or away from some approximation to sustainable development. Les indicateurs de viabilité intègrent des facteurs écologiques, sociaux et économiques tels que les relations complexes de cause et effet entre ces multiples facteurs puissent être examinés plus aisément. L'approche par systèmes entiers des aménagements viables diffère de l'écologisme traditionnel en ce qu'elle inclut des facteurs économiques et sociaux. Le choix d'indicateurs de viabilité est donc inévitablement un processus motivé par des valeurs humaines. Mais la santé de l'environnement n'en demeure pas moins le point essentiel. Des études empiriques accomplies aux Etats-Unis ont fait apparaître que les Etats à niveaux de pollution plus bas et réglementation écologique plus rigoureuse présentent des économies plus saines et moins de disparités de revenu entre classes économiques (Templet, 1995). Dans le bâtiment, des indicateurs de viabilité de construction constituent un parallèle nécessaire aux indicateurs à échelon macronational et régional mesurant le mouvement de la société dans le sens d'un rapprochement ou d'un écartement d'une certaine approximation de viabilité d'améngement.