Process philosophy

The term ‘Process Philosophy’ is based on the premise that being is dynamic and

that the dynamic nature of being should be the primary focus of any comprehensive philosophical account of reality and the place within it (Stanford University, 2012). It is an old philosophical tradition that emphasises becoming and changing over static being. According to the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (2013), the process philosophy is characterised by an attempt to reconcile the diverse intuitions found in human experience (such as religious, scientific, and aesthetic) into a coherent holistic scheme. Moreover it seeks a return to a neo-classical realism that avoids subjectivism. This reconciliation of the intuitions of objectivity and subjectivity, with a concern for scientific findings, produces the explicitly metaphysical speculation that the world, at its most fundamental level, is made up of momentary events of experience rather than enduring material substances. Process philosophy speculates that these momentary events, called “actual occasions” or “actual entities,” are essentially

self-determining, experiential, and internally related to each other. Therefore understanding process philosophy in specific to particular scientific investigation is important.

Having identified the nature of process philosophy it is important to identify what ‘does process mean’ and ‘how important it is, in organisational contexts and the ‘key characteristics’ of it. There are several definitions presented in the literature to

define a ‘process’, however none seems to be standard and well-established. When revealing the mainstream management literature, defining processes seems

to be a constant struggle. Jeong et al (2004) noted that the term is interpreted differently depending on the sector, function and the market in which they are operating on. So much so, that Ould (1995) explained that rather than discussing the exact definition of a process, it is essential to discuss its critical features. The following features were identified as key characteristics of a process.

 it involves activity. People or equipment do things;

 generally involves more than one person or piece of equipment;

 it is about groups, it concerns collaborative activity;

 it has a goal. It is intended to achieve something and produce some results;

Moreover it was identified the following requirement for process.

 Since a process must be shared among groups, it needs to be defined;

 The definition and knowledge of the process must be passed to those who will perform it. Hence there is a requirement for process learning;

 The knowledge of the process should drive and align the behaviour and

activities of those who perform it;

 The process leads to process results, which are the results of

performing the process.

Bal (1998) stated that a process can be looked at from various perspectives depending on the kind of information required. In his view this may take the form of what is going to be done, who and how it is going to be done, when it will be done, who will take the decision etc. Therefore, Bal (1998) identified that a process has

functional, behavioural, organisational, informational, and resource based content, and provides the following explanations of the various perspectives.

Table 3-1: Perspectives of process

Perspective Explanation

Functional view Functional view represents what activity or element of the process is being performed. It represents the act or activity that is being done by the actors or the employees.

Behavioural view Behavioural view relates to when the process is being performed, and how it is being done. The activity or process as a whole could be going through a feedback loop or an iterative process etc

Organisational view Organisational view represents who is performing the process. The mechanism through which there is interaction or transfer of content.

Informational view Informational view represents the information details or entities that are being manipulated by the process. These can be data or product entity details. The informational view considers both the data involved and their relationships.

Source: (Adopted from Bal, 1998)

Having analysed the available definitions for ‘process’, the following definitions were considered within this study as they are closely related to define organisational processes;

‘A course of action, proceeding, especially a series of operations in manufacturing, printing, photography, etc.’ (Oxford Concise Dictionary, 2011).

‘A sequence of steps performed for a given purpose. More simply stated, process is what you do. The process integrates people, tools and procedures together’ (Software Engineering Institute – Capability Maturity Model, 2014).

‘Any activity or group of activities that takes an input adds value to it and provides output to an internal or external customer. Processes use an organisation’s resources to provide definitive results’ (Harrington, 1991).

The above definitions highlight the importance of managing processes within organisations to run their business in long term and further to improve the ‘value’

of their businesses. The concept of process improvement, which developed in the quality movement, requires first that the existing process be stabilised. It then becomes predictable, and its capabilities become accessible to analysis and improvement. Simply, process improvement refers to making a process more effective, efficient, or transparent. The literature states that 34 continuous process improvements occur when the cycle of stabilizing, assessing, and improving a given process becomes institutionalised (Davenport and Short, 1990).