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Sustainability in Business Processes Management

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 39802

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Miloš Hitka

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology, Technical University in Zvolen, 960 01 Zvolen, Slovakia
Interests: management; human resource management; motivation; wood industry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Katarína Stachová

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Guest Editor

Institut of Civil Society, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
Interests: human resource management; organizational culture and intercultural management in the context of industry 4.0
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In order to be able to meet customer expectations, businesses are introducing smart features into their production systems, aiming at creating the necessary flexibility and capacity. Simple and monotonous processes are being automated, while other processes are becoming more complex and interconnected, which results in changing requirements for the competence profiles of human capital at their disposal. From the perspective of the optimisation of the performance of process management, and especially of sustainable business development, the interconnection of business processes by information and communication technologies, and their use by knowledge workers is essential. The integrated business concept provides for an interconnection between the horizontal and vertical links in business, while the fundamental element of integration is the removal of the boundaries between the fixed organisational units in favour of the overall information flow and business efficiency. It can be achieved by applying several approaches, with facility management being increasingly highlighted. Many contemporary trends in the management and development of human capital follow the digitisation processes, involving the building of a knowledge society and the networking or the creation of generationally and culturally diversified working teams.

The systems of human resource management respond by creating and implementing the concepts of their key processes in order to ensure that human resource management mirrors the fact that the management of the strategic factor, whose working capacity determines the competitive advantages of their businesses, is concerned. The significance of the integrated business concept from the viewpoint of sustainability is increasing with reference to the Industry 4.0 implementation, and the establishment of inter-company networks.

Ass. Prof. Miloš Hitka
Ass. Prof. Ing. Katarina Stachova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable business processes
human capital
digitisation processes
knowledge workers
Industry 4.0
the concept of integrated business
the development of human resource management
business process management
business efficiency
facility management

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 3086 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Is Business Process Management (BPM) Ready for Ambidexterity? Conceptualization, Implementation Guidelines and Research Agenda

by Tomasz Helbin and Amy Van Looy

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1906; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13041906 - 10 Feb 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4566

Abstract

Business Process Management ambidexterity is a nascent concept providing a philosophy and framework for organizations to radically innovate their business processes, while maintaining their capabilities in process efficiency and operational excellence. Considering the novelty of this topic, there is not yet an agreed conceptualization of the term, nor a consolidated view on related implementation guidelines. We aim to address this research gap through a Systematic Literature Review, where we provide a dual conceptualization that focuses on (1) the equilibrium balance between explorative and exploitative processes, as well as (2) the organizational capability to support exploration and exploitation. Based on this conceptualization, we provide consolidated guidelines for practitioners, including decision steps, followed by a research agenda in order to let this promising domain further advance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

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16 pages, 288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of the Level of Personnel Work in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

by Lukáš Smerek, Milota Vetráková, Šárka Čemerková and Vojtěch Malátek

Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 287; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13010287 - 30 Dec 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2073

Abstract

After 1989, the countries of Eastern and Central Europe began to undergo significant social and economic changes associated with the process of transformation of the economy into a market economy. Transformation is not only associated with the creation of a business environment, with the formation of new legal and institutional mechanisms, but also with a change in the thinking and behavior of people including employees, managers and owners. The paper aims to identify important processes and trends in developing human resource management in companies in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. We conducted the questionnaire survey in 2018 and 2019 in various areas of business. We obtained the opinions of respondents from 1542 companies. In the research, we assume that in the conditions of a market economy compared to a centrally managed economy, employees are the most important source of development and performance of companies. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sampling unit. The other methods used to evaluate data in the paper were the Mann-Whitney test and Spearman Correlation coefficient. The research revealed that despite a long common history, differences in the field of personnel work have arisen in the last 20 years of the independent existence of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The only exception is employee care. It was also found that in the Czech Republic the strategic orientation predominates, on the contrary, companies in the Slovak Republic focused on operational processes. Differences were also found in the way of adaptation and further training of employees. The results of the findings can be used to design processes with the highest positive impact on business performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

15 pages, 800 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability in Business Process Management as an Important Strategic Challenge in Human Resource Management

by Silvia Lorincová, Miloš Čambál, Andrej Miklošík, Žaneta Balážová, Zdenka Gyurák Babeľová and Miloš Hitka

Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 5941; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12155941 - 23 Jul 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3286

Abstract

The main goal of human resource management (HRM) is to create conditions that allow enterprises to run businesses effectively by following the maximum performance and sustainability of business processes, which are key factors for an enterprise to succeed on the market. For effective management of employees as a part of HRM, systematic employee motivation is necessary because human resources are a key factor for achieving enterprise sustainability. As employees can be motivated by everything stimulating their activity, the aim is to define the importance of employee motivation through the most important motivation factors relating to mutual relationships. The emphasis is put on the identification of statistically significant differences in terms of socio-demographic features of employees. At a significance level of 5%, the statistically significant differences in terms of gender, age, and job were tested further using Tukey’s honestly significant difference test. The research results showed a large number of statistically significant differences between individual employee categories. This leads to the conclusion that employers should focus on creating individual motivation programs for employees and not approach employees uniformly because of their various needs. Creating individual motivation programs for employees should respect their needs in terms of gender, age, and job position. Enterprises are recommended to focus their motivation programs on supporting motivation factors related to finance, mutual relationships, and work conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

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17 pages, 438 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reflection of Digitalization on Business Values: The Results of Examining Values of People Management in a Digital Age

by Jana Blštáková, Zuzana Joniaková, Nadežda Jankelová, Katarína Stachová and Zdenko Stacho

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5202; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12125202 - 25 Jun 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5526

Abstract

The European Union (European Parliament) understands industry 4.0 as a term for an environment of fast transformations of production systems and products. The basic characteristic of the change in the methods of creating added value in the conditions of the fourth industrial revolution is digitalization. Digitalization changes people management in two stages. The first stage is the adaptation of systems to the integration of physical inputs into digital systems, and the second stage is the redefinition of values for the internal and external customer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of the first digitalization stage and its impact on the transformation of values of corporate people management in the second stage of digitalization. The study published in this paper points out the level of digitalization applied towards the internal and external customer. The research results verify relations in the portfolio of corporate value and prove their present implementation of digitalization and its and importance for the future sustainability of the business. The study confirmed the independence of the levels of corporate digitalization and companies’ value portfolios. Furthermore, the study proved the universal nature of corporate value orientation, irrespective of the size, business focus or performance of the people management system. Meaningfulness, communication and cooperation dominate in terms of importance for business sustainability. The results of the study in Slovakia support the opinions of published foreign research, which emphasize the importance of introducing technological innovations aimed at employees to a much greater extent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

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16 pages, 315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Diversity Management as a Tool of Sustainability of Competitive Advantage

by Hana Urbancová, Monika Hudáková and Adéla Fajčíková

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5020; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12125020 - 19 Jun 2020

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 8455

Abstract

Diversity is a phenomenon that, due to increasing globalization, appears ever more frequently in all areas of human activity and performance, including the labor market and working teams. In light of these changes, this article aims to identify and evaluate the practice of diversity management as a factor of the sustainability of competitive advantage with regard to the examined factors of diversity. The results were obtained through primary analysis via a questionnaire survey at 549 Czech companies. The results indicate that there is a statistical dependence between the application of diversity management and the commercial sector in which the organization operates and the size of the organization. Organizations identified the following as the most significant benefits of the application of diversity management: retention of key employees (43.9%), improved motivation and performance of existing employees (39.3%), and improvement to the actual atmosphere in the workplace (33.9%). One recommendation for organizations is to focus more on this current topic, as the lack of a qualified workforce is becoming more pronounced. In this regard, it will also be necessary to devote sufficient attention to groups of potential workers who have hitherto been overlooked. The application of diversity management can be a successful tool to gain a competitive advantage in managing human resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

20 pages, 310 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Age Management on Sustainability in Czech Organisations

by Hana Urbancová, Lucie Vnoučková, Zdenek Linhart, Gabriela Ježková Petrů, Roman Zuzák, Lenka Holečková and Zita Prostějovská

Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 1064; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12031064 - 03 Feb 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3885

Abstract

Age management is becoming an increasingly important part of strategic human resources management practices and can ultimately lead to a competitive advantage. Research results confirmed that a strategic focus on the efficient use of all age categories of employees yields retention, the successful achievement of organisation goals, development, and, ultimately, a competitive advantage. The aim of this article is to identify and evaluate approaches to age management practices in organisations in 1271 organisations in the Czech Republic. Quantitative research was carried out in selected organisations operating over a three-year period. Data was gathered from these organisations and evaluated using descriptive and multidimensional statistics. The results show that those organisations focusing on the application of age management practices achieved a competitive advantage regardless of size or sector of the organisation. Statistical analysis (χ2 test, Cramer’s V, factor analysis) on survey data shows that many of these organisations achieved significant perceived benefits from the application of age management. The approach to age management application varies in organisations depending on whether it is an internal branding of an employer or response to a crisis. Organisations either use of best practices to implement age management or it is a carefully planned process in advance. Follow-up research can focus on the use of age management in crisis management or employer branding. This study is a non-experimental quantitative correlation analysis utilising longitudinal empirical data. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

Review

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30 pages, 1350 KiB

Open AccessReview

Business Process Management and Digital Innovations: A Systematic Literature Review

by Tahir Ahmad and Amy Van Looy

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6827; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12176827 - 22 Aug 2020

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 11134

Abstract

Emerging technologies have capabilities to reshape business process management (BPM) from its traditional version to a more explorative variant. However, to exploit the full benefits of new IT, it is essential to reveal BPM’s research potential and to detect recent trends in practice. Therefore, this work presents a systematic literature review (SLR) with 231 recent academic articles (from 2014 until May 2019) that integrate BPM with digital innovations (DI). We position those articles against seven future BPM-DI trends that were inductively derived from an expert panel. By complementing the expected trends in practice with a state-of-the-art literature review, we are able to derive covered and uncovered themes in order to help bridge a rigor-relevance gap. The major technological impacts within the BPM field seem to focus on value creation, customer engagement and managing human-centric and knowledge-intensive business processes. Finally, our findings are categorized into specific calls for research and for action to let scholars and organizations better prepare for future digital needs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Business Processes Management)

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