The effect of business process reengineering (BPR) on public sector organisation performance in a developing economy context
Creators: name: Kassahun, Asmare Emerie
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: This research develops a research model to analyse whether the implementation of BPR by public organisations in the developing economies contributes to the business process and overall organisational performance.<br><br>BPR has been widely adopted by private businesses and has been a focus of research since the 1990s and it is still one of the top five management concerns for information technology (IT) executives globally. However, BPR’s adoption in the public sector in general, and public sectors in developing economies in particular, is a relatively recent and little researched phenomenon. The concept of New Public Management (NPM) and public sector pressure for administration efficiency, transparency, good governance, accountability and e-Government is the major driving force behind embracing and practicing BPR by the public sector in the developing economies. <br><br>Public sector BPR literature shows that there is lack of research that theorises validates and develops a measurement model to evaluate the organisational performance effect of public sector BPR in general and those in developing economies in particular. Given the fact that developing economies are investing heavily in BPR with the aim of modernising public administration, there is, therefore, a need for empirical investigation of whether BPR is improving their performance. Hence, the main research question addressed in this research is: Does BPR matter to the performance of public sector organisations?<br><br>The research’s conceptual foundation is based on resource-based view (RBV) theory and its complementary competence perspective; BPR literature and the public sector organisation performance literature; and from findings of the exploratory study. The framework establishes the relationships between BPR resources and implementation issues, BPR depth and BPR outcome and impact, and develops 13 hypotheses. The research pursues the positivist paradigm. Both interview (n = 16) and survey (n = 209) methods are used to collect data in two stages—exploratory study and main study—from public administration organisations in Ethiopia. The psychometric properties of the survey instrument are established through a rigorous procedure involving exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques, using SPSS and AMOS, respectively. <br><br>The findings show that a public sector organisation in a developing economy can use BPR to improve process and overall organisational performance if it (a) has accumulated stock of BPR-relevant resources and capabilities; (b) has undertaken BPR with sufficient depth; (c) is developing a post-BPR complementary competencies to sustain and further enhance the BPR changes; and (d) has mitigated the negative effect of BPR implementation problems. The research model explains 54% and 40% of the variance in organisational and business process performance, respectively.<br><br>The research makes an original contribution to public sector BPR literature through its development and validation of the model and accompanying measurement instrument. In particular, the conception, measurement, hypotheses and empirical findings of the BPR complementary competency construct represent a significant contribution in advancing the theoretical foundation and the empirical basis of the BPR, public sector BPR and developing economy BPR literature. The research also offers relevant recommendations to public managers and BPR practitioners on how to execute BPR successfully.<br>