No abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to find and rank the barriers of the four knowledge management (KM) processes including generation, storage, distribution and application in the gas and petroleum sector. Design/methodology/approach – Reviewing the literature of KM and organizational learning, this paper extracted all of the barriers which impede KM processes. Then it designed a questionnaire for validating, ranking and categorizing barriers. Totally, 190 completed questionnaires were gathered from 26 gas and petroleum companies in Iran. Some statistical tests such as T, Friedman, Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney were used for analyzing data. Findings – Findings reviewed the current literature of KM barriers, validated and ranked the barriers of knowledge generation, storage, distribution and application separately. The importance of knowledge generation and knowledge application barriers were significantly different between gas and petroleum companies. Hence they were disjointedly ranked for gas and petroleum. Finally, KM barriers were ranked according to their contribution to KM processes and the average mean of their importance in KM processes. Practical implications – From the practical point of view, this paper suggests managers of gas and petroleum companies to emphasize solving high-priority barriers according to the KM process which they are focused on. Furthermore, the study provides a checklist that can be used as an assessment tool for evaluating KM processes considering barriers. Originality/value – This paper finds the importance of each barrier for each of the four KM processes and ranks the “critical barriers” according to their contribution to four KM processes in the gas and petroleum sector.

No abstract

No abstract

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to develop, test and improve a method that draws upon business process improvement literature and combines it with knowledge management approaches for modeling and analyzing knowledge‐intensive business processes.Design/methodology/approachAnalyzing and integrating previous meta models served in knowledge oriented business process researches, a preliminary meta model was developed for modeling knowledge‐intensive business processes. Then an initial version of Proper Arrangement of Knowledge Management Processes (PAKMP) framework was developed according to the knowledge management processes approaches. Third round of interviews with process 137 members were conducted in order to test applicability and completeness of both preliminary meta model and initial version of PAKMP framework in order to improve them. In addition, a five‐steps analysis method achieved through case study which is based on the application of both final Meta model and PAKMP framework. In fact this five‐steps method was applied in Tehran's Municipality which redounded to improve preliminary meta model and initial version of PAKMP framework and endorsed the applicability of the proposed method in real world.FindingsThis paper has a contribution in enriching the literature related to integrating KM efforts and BPM efforts by presenting a five‐steps analysis method and testing it in a real case. This method considers both KM and business process management points of view.Research limitations/implicationsThe general applicability of the method due to the weak generalization of the single case study is a limitation.Originality/valueThis paper combines the advantages of the business process improvement and knowledge management approaches and suggests a practical method for modeling and analyzing the knowledge management status in knowledge‐intensive business processes. After analysis, managers should put emphasis on improving the arrangement of KM processes for critical knowledge objects which led to improve the performance of knowledge‐intensive business process trough removing KM problems. The paper concludes by suggesting some topics for future research.

Performance management (PM) and customer management were the subjects of researchers' attentions for several decades. This research tries to align these two approaches to provide strategic decision-making. The proposed approach suggests an integration of customer relationship management system incorporating PM system considering maximisation of customer lifetime value (CLV) metric. For this, a model is being developed to align PM and customer management. For customer management, we cluster customers based on four dimensions which are product combination, activity level, retention rate and CLV. This combination of attributes has not been used before and can bring more useful information. For example, it can reveal which product combination can pinpoint profitable, loyal and active customers. This helps for the prevention of customer migration. However, the main novelty of this research is proposing the application of CLV as a financial metric in strategic PM in an integrative approach. The research model has been applied in an Iranian commercial retail bank. In the implementation, various techniques and mathematical models including genetic K-means, analytic hierarchical processes and data envelopment analysis have been used.

To implement successful business process re-engineering (BPR) initiatives, several capabilities have been identified. Required capabilities before and during implementing of BPR projects have been introduced for achieving success. The literature has suggested various approaches to assessing readiness and implementation of BPR projects. However, lack of a practical measurement method is evident. Therefore, in this paper, a practical measurement tool for requiring capabilities is proposed to enhance the chances for successful implementation of BPR by mapping these capabilities on steps of BPR projects. In addition, the relations between these capabilities and BPR success barriers are identified. This tool includes a generic questionnaire that can be helpful for self-assessment of readiness based on the desired organisational capabilities (DOCs) in BPR efforts. In the questionnaire proposed in this paper, various indicators have been identified for assessing readiness in BPR implementation. These indicators include 21 categories based on DOCs. This report indicates the importance of each DOC in various steps and the influence of DOCs on different barriers of success. We report the results of a survey based on the questionnaire, which was conducted in four Iranian organisations. Based on the results gathered from this examination, the study offers several guidelines for increasing the points of success and decreasing the points of failure and, hence, increasing the rate of success before and during implementation.

This study establishes critical success factors (CSFs) that affect the readiness and successful implementation of process management (PM). Preliminary by reviewing the literature and studying various reports about implementation PM in organizations, critical success factors that affecting successful implementation of PM were identified. The 13 factors and 64 sub factors were refined, and these factors and sub factors were tested by PM experts' opinions. Then, the refined CSFs formed the basis of self-assessment framework that can be used by firms to analyze their readiness to implement PM. Finally we offer statistical methods in order to manage, improve and increase the affects of them in organizations by using ISO 10017:2003.