Developing A BPM-Supportive Organizational Culture: On The Importance Of Contextual Factors

In recent years, the importance of a holistic understanding of business process management (BPM) has been increasingly recognized in Information Systems (IS) research. In this sense, research extended its focus beyond methodological and technological factors of BPM to strategic and cultural factors, for example. Particularly, organizational culture is increasingly recognized as a success factor for reaching efficiency and effectiveness of business processes. To date, existing research specified and operationalized cultural values which shape a supportive environment for realizing BPM objectives. However, there is a lack of studies which engage with the development of a BPMfacilitating organizational culture. In this paper, we investigate how contextual characteristics of organizations determine the specific activities that help developing a BPM(-supportive) culture in an organization. We do so by examining the cases of two companies from distinct contextual backgrounds. While both cases show a moderate realization of BPM culture, their strategies on how to develop their organizational culture towards being more supportive of BPM differ strongly. Based on the specific contextual backgrounds of the organizations, we reason that contextual factors need to considered when deriving strategies for the development of organizational cultures. Against this background, we conclude on the relevance of contextual factors for cultural development in BPM.