Business process management in
a Brazilian public research centre
Odemilson Fernando Sentanin
Embrapa Agricultural Instrumentation Research Centre,
Embrapa Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Sa
˜
o Carlos, Brazil
Fernando Ce
´
sar Almada Santos
Production Engineering Department, Engineering School of Sa
˜
o Carlos,
University of Sa
˜
o Paulo, Sa
˜
o Carlos, Brazil, and
Charbel Jose
´
Chiappetta Jabbour
Engineering School of Sa
˜
o Carlos, University of Sa
˜
o Paulo, Sa
˜
o Carlos, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a Brazilian public research centre
implemented business process management (BPM) highlighting the challenges of change that have to
be dealt with in the stage developed by this organisation.
Design/methodology/approach – The first author of this paper accompanied the implementation
of BPM in the research centre for 33 months in order to analyse documents and reports and have
interviews with various managers and employees.
Findings – The studied organisation developed an intermediate stage towards BPM. The
progressive approach favours a better understanding of the challenges that have to be overcome in
order to improve BPM in an organisation. Thus, the BPM approach can be effectively assimilated and
practised by the centre’s staff.
Research limitations/implications – The depth of the analysis carried out in the case study make
more structured research possible.
Originality/value – The challenges of implementing BPM in a Brazilian public research centre are
investigated. This case study is based on a theoretical, empirical and maturity level approach. Thus, a
particular case of implementing BPM which took place in a very specific context, not explored in the
literature, is presented to the community interested in BPM.
Keywords Business process re-engineering, Corporate strategy, Strategic planning,
Organizational structures, Organizational change, Brazil
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Business process management (BPM) became an important theme in the 1990s as
companies strived to increase their productivity, improve their relationship with
customers and reduce the time to launch new products and processes. Numerous studies
dealt with challenges and procedures concerning BPM (Grover et al., 1995), and were
carried out not only in order to have a better definition of BPM (Ahmed and Simintiras,
1996) but also to explore methodologies, techniques and tools which could be useful for
BPM (Kettinger et al., 1997). As a common aspect, these studies emphasised aspects of
BPM in private companies and dealt with methodologies developed by recognised
consultancies, usually in the context of developed countries and multinational
companies.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-7154.htm
Business process
management
483
Business Process Management
Journal
Vol. 14 No. 4, 2008
pp. 483-496
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1463-7154
DOI 10.1108/14637150810888037