In the context of a concern with a self sustaining system for the management of Human Resources, those responsible for the Coordination of Human Resources at the Governmental Agency ‘Secretaria de Administração do Estado de Santa Catarina’ (SEA) have decided to use a Constructivist Multicriteria Decision Aid Approach (MCDA) to help them identify the most convenient courses of action for the achievement of the proposed goals. The present paper shows both the development of an MCDA model and the process used for action generation and assessment.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to know what scientific literature presents about the theme evaluation of seaport performance, thus enabling the construction of knowledge in the researchers and the identification of gaps in the research that will lead to advances in the area from the identification of the characteristics of a portfolio of relevant international publications. Design/methodology/approach – From the basic philosophical (constructivism), of the kind strategy (research-action) and the method used for the accomplishment of such strategy (structured process knowledge development process – constructivist (ProKnow-C)) the current research has a qualitative approach. Findings – From the analysis of the bibliographic portfolio composed of 23 articles, the main results were: focus of the evaluation of seaport performance is on operational and tactical efficiency rather than on strategic and global performance; the majority of the studies does not relate to the reality experienced by seaport managers due to the limited interaction with these managers, evidencing a distance of the researchers from the object of their research; and performance evaluation was barely used/explored as a tool to support management, only for the sake of evaluation itself. Research limitations/implications – The search occurred in the databases Web of Science, Scopus, Proquest, Ebsco, Sciece Direct and Wiley. Originality/value – The identification of gaps that might promote advances in this field of knowledge, once the seaport segment is not exploring the potential that performance evaluation can offer and is already available in literature.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to collect data and select a bibliographic portfolio (BP) of the literature on the performance evaluation of business process management (BPM) governance, in order to highlight studies aligned with business process governance, and with scientific recognition and its bibliometric parameters. Design/methodology/approach The research method is qualitative and the process of identification, selection, and analysis of the articles in the BP took place through evaluation and interpretation by the authors of this research. Regarding data collection, this research used primary data in the selection of the BP, and secondary data when the authors analyzed the articles. Findings The paper selects a set of 19 articles with scientific recognition and aligned with the research topic, which refers to the performance evaluation of BPM governance. This set is called the BP, and highlights and contains the most often present journals, articles, authors, and keywords found in the search performed by the authors. Originality/value This research uses thorough procedures for the selection process that differ from traditional procedures: the selection process is structured in a way that allows checking of each research stage; the research topic is fragmented into many areas of study and the search is carried out simultaneously in all these areas; and the researchers interact with the search process and as they expand their learning they adjust the search direction.

The increasing complexity of hospital management indicates a greater need for scientific instruments that underlie the performance evaluations of the organizational processes in this sector. From this perspective, this work evaluates the performance of the main activities of the internal logistics process of a Brazilian public teaching hospital's supply chain. To this end, a multicriteria decision analysis approach is used as an instrument of intervention. The multicriteria model constructed serves as a decision support system to aid decision makers, allowing managers to measure logistics performance in the hospital context and to visualize the performance profile of the main logistics activities, enabling the identification of activities requiring greater attention and improvement.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to support the management of organizational knowledge retention through a multi-criteria decision aiding–constructivist model. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory and descriptive case study presents a decision support model guided by the constructivist approach and proactive in its operationalization. Findings The objectives and concerns of decision-makers regarding the retention of organizational knowledge are identified and organized into six strategic areas of concern, namely, recognition, knowledge dissemination, organizational culture, succession of professionals, management of vulnerability origins and knowledge management; a multi-criteria model is constructed and operationalized by a cluster of cardinal scales, showing and measuring the status quo of the performance profile, both in a local and global way, to support the management of the organization's knowledge retention; activities are classified into three performance levels (compromising, competitive and excellent), supported by graphical and numerical evidence; and the process to generate actions to improve the performance of critical activities and create the conditions to maximize the results of the organization is illustrated. Practical implications Based on the model, decision-makers are now aware of the essential aspects to support knowledge retention management, enabling them to monitor the current situation and proactively respond to ensure that the current knowledge potential is maintained and exploited. Originality/value Use of a constructivist approach to support the management of knowledge retention, incorporating into the model the specifics of the context and the values of its managers, and thus giving it legitimacy.

This study deals with the problem of outsourcing management, presenting a structure to support decision-making on effective information-technology outsourcing and highlighting the advantages and disadvantages that must be addressed. Since the study involves multiple variables, partially defined and conflicting objectives, and the will of decision-makers to broaden their understanding of the impact of decisions, the study used the multicriteria decision aid constructivist method to lead data collection and analysis. The chief results presented are: (i) a structured appraisal arranged by 8 strategic objectives and 107 performance indicators; (ii) the strengths and weaknesses of the status quo; and (iii) a process diagram for generating improvements. To ensure presentation of scientific and practical recognition in accordance with the constructivist path, the epistemological view adopted meets the scientific and practical requirements to ensure validity, legitimacy, and effectiveness of a model to support a decision-making process in a practical environment.

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This paper proposes a constructivist methodology of business process management to aid managers to generate understanding of the environment of their organization and to build recommendations on their resources and capabilities to create competitive advantages. This research is characterized as an applied research, and it is used a study case to illustrate how the use of presented framework may aid decisions to manage business processes as a dynamic capability. The presented framework is called Business Process Management—Constructivist. The presented framework is an extension of a performance measurement methodology and provides procedures to expand the understanding of the decision‐maker about specific context and to recognize the uniqueness of the resources in order to manage processes as a dynamic capability. The presented framework intends to be a guide to managers and researchers to understand how to manage business processes from a resource‐based view to create value to the decision‐makers' perspectives. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.