USING ROLE-PLAYS TO ACQUIRE PROCESS-ORIENTED

KNOWLEDGE IN ENTERPRISES

René Börner and Michael Leyer

Process Lab, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Sonnemannstraße 9-11, 60314, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Keywords: Tacit knowledge, Role-plays, Process-oriented knowledge, Social learning.

Abstract: Process-oriented enterprises are expected to be more successful than traditional functional-oriented ones.

Consequently, more and more companies want to become process-oriented. But to reach this goal a basic

change of mind towards more process-oriented thinking of a company’s employees is required. Therefore,

the adequate support of employees to acquire process-oriented knowledge is crucial for organisations.

Unfortunately, the necessary knowledge is tacit knowledge which is not easy to acquire. While formal

learning or training programs deliver explicit knowledge and skills, it is much more challenging to generate

implicit or tacit knowledge out of everyday work activities. In order to help employees to acquire and apply

tacit knowledge, a role-play based simulation program, named KreditSim, has been developed. This kind of

simulation allows for a learning environment closely related to the actual workplace. The case of KreditSim

shows how this coaching method actively involves employees and improves awareness of process-oriented

thinking. The participants gain the necessary process-oriented knowledge by a guided improvement of a

given functional-oriented process with deficiencies.

1 INTRODUCTION

Business process thinking has become a major topic

in management. Process-oriented organisations are

expected to be faster in delivering outputs, more

adaptable to changes in the market, more responsive

to the needs of customers and superior in terms

of quality (Hammer and Champy, 1993).

Consequently, turning a company into a process-

oriented organisation is seen as a competitive

advantage and fundamental to its success. Having

these advantages in mind, many companies try to

become more process-oriented.

However, empirical studies prove that the

majority of companies are still function-oriented

(Vergidis, Turner and Tiwari, 2008). One major

reason for this might be the fact that process-

oriented enterprises require different knowledge

compared to function-oriented organisations

(Kugeler and Vieting, 2003). The necessary process-

oriented knowledge is mostly tacit knowledge which

has to be acquired by the employees in a company

(Riege and Zulpo, 2007). Tacit knowledge covers

the know-how and behaviour of a person, which is

implicit and linked to the specific person. The

acquisition of process-oriented tacit knowledge

requires a fundamental change of mind of the

employees which is not easy to accomplish.

Consequently, enterprises have to train their

employees to acquire process-oriented knowledge.

Here, the question emerges, how employees can

acquire the knowledge necessary to perform their

tasks in a process-oriented organisation. The

acquisition of such tacit knowledge is most

successful if it takes place in the actual work

environment of employees (Ives, Torrey and

Gordon, 2000).

The aim of this paper is to highlight the value of

role-plays to facilitate the acquisition of process-

oriented knowledge. The paper is organized as

follows. First, we will describe the kind of

knowledge contained in business processes. Second,

options for knowledge acquisition in the context of

business processes are presented. One promising

approach to acquire process-oriented knowledge is

to use role-play based simulations. To demonstrate

the effects of this type of simulation the role-play

KreditSim will be presented. Finally, we will draw

conclusions on the usage of role-plays for acquiring

tacit knowledge.

149

Börner R. and Leyer M..

USING ROLE-PLAYS TO ACQUIRE PROCESS-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE IN ENTERPRISES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003066501490156

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing (KMIS-2010), pages 149-156

ISBN: 978-989-8425-30-0

 2010 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

2 PROCESS-ORIENTED VIEW

OF AN ENTERPRISE

Employees involved in business processes tend to

have a limited view by focusing on their functional

position. As a result, employees often do not realize

that their work is part of one or more business

processes. Figure 1 shows a generic example of a

company with three departments. There are two

ways to look at such an enterprise: (1) The function-

oriented view and (2) the process-oriented view.

Employees

Business

processes

Departments

customers

Figure 1: Functional- vs. process-oriented view of an

enterprise.

In a function-oriented organization production

takes place as a series of tasks in which every

employee focuses on a specific function. This leads

among other disadvantages to a high number of

employees being involved in the production process

to fulfil a customer demand without any of them

being responsible for the overall result. In the worst

case, employees receive inputs to perform their

respective tasks and do not even know from whom it

is delivered. Similarly, they might not know who the

receiver (i.e. the employee who performs the next

step in the process) of their output is.

Contrary, in a process-oriented organization, less

employees work on one customer order and ideally,

a pro cess owner is responsible for the outcome

(Kugeler and Vieting, 2003). According to the

resource based view, each company depends on

resources such as employees, machines, IT systems

and buildings to produce goods or services for its

customers (Wernerfelt, 1984). The resources itself

do not incorporate business value but their

combination to create an output like goods or

services does. This combination is conducted within

business processes. A business process (the term

process is used synonymously here) is characterized

by a set of connected activities necessary to deliver a

defined business outcome (Davenport and Short,

1990). Starting point for designing a business

process is the aspired business outcome which

depends on the customers’ demands. Based on the

customer need, all necessary activities are processed

to deliver the demanded good or service to the

customer. Within a business process, employees,

machines and IT systems transform inputs into

outputs. Thus, a company can be seen as a bundle of

business processes containing the knowledge to

produce goods and services of the company

including supporting activities (Inkpen and Dinur,

1998). Employees having process-oriented

knowledge are aware of the context in which they

are performing their tasks.

3 CHARACTERISTICS OF

PROCESS-ORIENTED

KNOWLEDGE

Since business processes are the foundation for

production, the management of the process-oriented

knowledge is a key factor for the success of a

company. If this knowledge is not captured, stored,

shared and applied a company is likely to fail

(Lucas, 2010; Paroutis and Al Saleh, 2009). But,

business processes are virtual constructs. The

intangibility exacerbates the awareness of employees

for a process-oriented view. Trying to identify the

knowledge embedded in processes suggests

differentiating between explicit and tacit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge can be stored and is independent

from a certain person. Tacit knowledge can not be

stored and is strictly associated to individuals

Nonaka (1994). Even though explicit and tacit

knowledge differ in their basic nature, it is still

possible to transfer tacit into explicit knowledge to a

certain extent (Lee, 2000). Three basic types of

knowledge can be derived in the context of

processes (Hawryszkiewycz, 2010):

 The basic type of knowledge is explicit

knowledge in terms of traditional process

documentations. Within these documentations

the intangible process is made explicit. It is

shown how the resources necessary to produce

a good or a service have to be combined. This

includes information about necessary tasks,

their order, responsible employees, IT-systems

involved et cetera. The way process

knowledge is captured differs significantly

among organisations. More or less

sophisticated approaches range from Excel-

based task lists to comprehensive

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150

documentation based on professional software

using standardised notations like Business

Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) or Event-

driven Process Chains (EPCs) (Barber,

Dewhurst, Burns and Rogers, 2003).

 Additional to process documentation, there

exists explicit knowledge as a result of

monitoring and analyzing the process

performance. This knowledge mainly

addresses the management of a company

based on key indicators of the production

process. But this kind of knowledge can also

be useful for employees working within a

business process. It incorporates

complementary information to improve the

process but does not substitute the knowledge

which is necessary to perform the task itself.

 The major type of knowledge in processes is

tacit knowledge of the employees performing

the tasks. Tacit knowledge is a combination of

cognitive processes and physical facts

determining how a person behaves to solve a

problem (Hawryszkiewycz, 2010). For

instance, one employee may perform better

than another having the same working

conditions and yet it is not possible to capture

the reasons for this difference.

As a result, tacit knowledge is a major source of

knowledge in companies. Often, tacit knowledge

vanishes as employees change their jobs or leave the

company. In order not to lose this vital knowledge,

an organisation can try to explicit the tacit

knowledge. Explicit knowledge in terms of process

documentation for example is very helpful.

Processes are made visible on paper or on screen and

employees can better understand the meaning of

their activities, techniques and information systems

within a process. But in real-world settings several

problems occur (Nonaka, 1994):

 Explicit knowledge still remains abstract, as

documentations are limited in delivering an

image of reality. Processes themselves are still

not tangible leading to difficulties in a

process-oriented thinking.

 The effort to keep explicit knowledge up to date

is high. The world is changing fast and so are

customers and as a result the company’s

employees and processes, too. As a result,

process documentations are often not

reflecting the existing activities in processes.

 Tacit knowledge is very hard to learn from

explicit sources of knowledge. It has to be

gained through experience. It can only be

acquired by employees based on experiences

or transferred by other people.

Subsequently, explicit knowledge delivers some

information but is not helpful in acquiring the tacit

knowledge which is necessary for process-oriented

thinking. Due to the intangibility of processes, tacit

knowledge is a key factor in performing tasks

effectively and efficiently. A company forcing the

change towards a process-oriented organization has

to align explicit knowledge but mainly focus on tacit

knowledge. It is very important that employees

know how to perform their tasks having a process-

oriented thinking. If employees do not have the

necessary tacit knowledge the shift will fail

(Oakland and Tanner, 2007).

As a result, it is important to support employees

in acquiring and sharing tacit knowledge. Thus, the

acquisition of tacit knowledge is a major topic in

companies, which will be discussed further on.

4 POSSIBILITIES OF LEARNING

TACIT KNOWLEDGE

In literature three general options for the acquisition

of tacit knowledge, such as process-oriented

knowledge, can be found:

 Socializing: Within this option, events should

be set-up, allowing employees to share tacit

knowledge through joint activities (Nonaka,

1994). In this context (Snowden, 1998)

proposes that tacit knowledge can be shared

through psychosocial mechanisms and

released through trust and its dynamics.

 Experiencing: Acting, e.g. performing tasks, is

another option to learn tacit knowledge (Earl

and Scott, 1999). A vital part of this option is

“learning by doing” (Levitt and March, 1988).

To accelerate experiencing (Nonaka, 1994)

experiencing should be connected to

socializing, as experience has to be shared

between people.

 Using explicit knowledge: According to

(Nonaka, 1991) tacit knowledge can be

acquired based on explicit knowledge. The

latter can be the result of an externalization of

tacit knowledge in publicly comprehensible

forms like documentations (Nonaka, 1991;

Snowden, 1998).

Thinking about the most effective option to acquire

tacit knowledge, use of explicit knowledge is the

weakest one. The amount of tacit knowledge which

can be learnt by explicit knowledge is limited

USING ROLE-PLAYS TO ACQUIRE PROCESS-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE IN ENTERPRISES

151

(Hawryszkiewycz, 2010). According to a study by

Lee (2000) the amount of learning tacit knowledge

by sharing it is about 90 per cent of total knowledge

sharing.

Learning by simply experiencing is very useful,

but also restricted as employees have to learn on

their own. Additionally, experiencing on the job is

combined w ith a high risk of failures due to a trial

and error acquisition of knowledge (Levitt and

March, 1988). This could be a problem, as an

organisation’s success depends on efficient

processing of tasks. While the employee is making

mistakes customers will become upset or will decide

for a different competitor. Socializing is very

promising, as it allows for a proper exchange of tacit

knowledge. Due to a lack of application, employees

often do not acquire all available tacit knowledge.

Applying newly learned facts, contents and methods

actively and, thus, experiencing the effects

contributes significantly to the acquisition of tacit

knowledge. Considering this background, role-play

simulations seem to be a promising approach as they

combine socializing with experiencing (Nonaka,

1994).

5 ROLE-PLAY-BASED

SIMULATIONS

Role-play-based simulations as presented in the

following are one specific type of simulation.

Participants adopt particular responsibilities, i.e.

“roles.” Usually, detailed descriptions about tasks

are given to each participant of the role-play. In

practice, different objectives can be pursued by the

facilitation of role-plays. Depending on these

objectives they can support four categories of

learning according to Klippert (2009):

 Content and factual learning: The acquisition

of knowledge and facts, understanding

explanations and phenomena, recognizing

relationships and evaluating hypotheses

provide the basis for all other types of

learning.

 Methodological and strategic learning: The

focus is on structuring, organising and

arranging the acquired knowledge. This

entails the ability to independently apply,

reflect or further develop learnt lines of

reasoning, working techniques, problem-

solving or learning strategies within a subject-

matter or cross-functional context

(Hechenleitner and Schwarzkopf, 2006).

Employers increasingly expect this type of

methodological competence, in addition to

subject-matter competence, from prospective

employees.

 Social and communicative learning: Utilizing

the learnt facts and knowledge as a basis for

argumentation and discussion with other

members in society, social competence can be

developed. Central to this type of learning is a

rational and responsible discourse, as such

behaviour fosters teamwork which in turn

serves to enhance social-communicative

abilities.

 Affective learning: The so-called self-

competence encompasses the development of

self-confidence, commitment, and motivation.

Affective learning enables the individual to

recognize and bring out his or her own talents

and abilities as well as to develop reasoned

ethical values and moral concepts

(Hechenleitner and Schwarzkopf, 2006).

Frequently articulated objectives of role-plays

include the ability to deal with difficult situations,

developing self-assurance, improving auto-

perceptive and self-reflection skills, increasing

motivation, and raising communicative effectiveness

(Bliesener, 1994). However, it is important not to

pursue too many objectives with a role-play. An

overload of differing objectives may unsettle

participants with little previous role-play experience

and thus inadvertently result in a defensive attitude

towards the role-play (Broich, 1994).

The acquisition of tacit knowledge can be

supported by role-plays as depicted in Figure 2.

Socializing and experiencing have been identified as

the most promising ways to acquire tacit knowledge.

Both belong to the categories social &

communicative learning and affective learning

covered by role-plays (Börner and Uremovic 2010).

Hence, the latter are well suited to support

employees in gaining process-oriented knowledge.

Nevertheless, there is very little evidence of role-

plays used in a business context. If role-plays are

used in companies the focus is more on knowledge

transfer in general than on learning (e.g. van Laere,

de Vreede and Sol, 2006). To the best of our

knowledge, there is no literature on role-plays

focussing on learning in a business context.

The simulation KreditSim, which will be

described in the following section, can subsequently

be used to acquire this tacit knowledge incorporated

in processes and subsequently improve a company’s

processes.

KMIS 2010 - International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing

152

Acquisition of

tacit knowledge

Four categories

of learning

Content and

factual learning

Methodological

and strategic

learning

Using explicit

knowledge

Experiencing

Socializing

Affective learning

Social and

communicative

learning

Figure 2: Interaction of learning categories and tacit

knowledge acquisition.

6 KreditSim

KreditSim is a role-play designed to convey the idea

of process thinking as well as opportunities and

effects of process improvements. It targets

employees involved in back office processes which

can be found in almost every company. In our

particular case the simulation KreditSim has been

developed for employees in the banking industry. It

deals with the processing of loan applications from

new customers, being a typical back office process

of banks. Participants adopt the roles of loan

processing specialists, department head, controller

and managing director of the fictitious Home Loan

Bank Ltd. Workplaces are set up in a seminar room

by the facilitator and the participants receive all

necessary documents. Thus, a working environment

is provided. Simulation participants have to process

loan applications in accordance with their given job

descriptions. Since each participant is responsible

for handling only a small portion of the entire

process, it becomes quickly apparent that while each

participant fulfils his or her process tasks at their

very best, the entire process nevertheless yields an

unsatisfactory result. Eliminating errors of the loan

application processing as well as reducing the long

cycle time can only be accomplished through a

holistic, cross-functional analysis.

To gain first-hand experience of the loan

approval process and its subsequent improvement,

facilitators often divide the seminar into three phases

(Börner et al. 2009): The first phase consists of

conducting the simulation of the pre-described loan

approval process of Home Loan Bank Ltd., i.e. the

current process. This phase is standardised and

predetermined through the use of the game materials

and adherence to the role-play instructions. The

second phase focuses on optimizing the existing

process. This approach serves as the foundation for

developing a new and optimized loan approval

process. In phase three, participants simulate the

improved process design. Results from the new

process are captured and compared with the results

from the original process.

6.1 Initial Situation in the Role Play

The role play KreditSim is typically conducted as

part of a one-day or two-day training seminar. At the

very beginning, the moderator introduces the current

situation that serves as a starting point for the role

play KreditSim, providing the following overview:

“Home Loan Bank Ltd. is a regional bank that

specializes in real estate financing. The bank

maintains four branch offices. In these branch

offices, sales specialists for real estate loans and

financing advise potential customers. The decision

whether or not to approve a loan application is made

at headquarters. Sales specialists attach particular

importance to timely and accurate processing of the

applications they have submitted to headquarters.

Their requirements are expressed with the following

quality criteria:

 Processing of the loan application with an

approval or rejection decision within four days

(in the role play this equates to four minutes),

 determination of the correct credit rating, and

 consideration of customer requirements (e.g.

interest rates or payment terms).”

The moderator prepared the process for the first

simulation round and therefore knows that based on

conducting and thus experiencing the loan approval

process at Home Loan Bank Ltd. participants

quickly realize that these requirements cannot be

met. In most cases, the decision concerning a

particular loan application will take nine or ten days

(i.e. minutes in the simulation). In addition, there

will be frequent errors in the credit rating, resulting

in incorrect decisions concerning the approval of

loan applications. Finally, very often specific

customer requirements will not have been

sufficiently addressed during the processing of the

loan application. Therefore, the moderator can easily

convince participants of the necessity to analyze and

optimize the loan approval process.

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153

To support the first-hand experience of the loan

approval process and its subsequent optimization,

moderators often divide the seminar into three

phases: The first phase consists of conducting the

simulation of the pre-described loan approval

process of Home Loan Bank Ltd., i.e. the current

process. This phase is standardized and

predetermined through the use of the game materials

and adherence to the role play instructions. The

second phase focuses on optimizing the existing

process. The moderator guides the participants often

using tools within the DMAIC (Define, Measure,

Analyze, Improve, Control) cycle, which is the

central procedural method of Six Sigma (Pande,

Neumann and Cavanagh, 2000). This approach is

very helpful as foundation for developing a new and

optimized loan approval process. In phase three,

participants simulate the optimized process design.

Results from the new process are captured and

compared with the results from the original process.

6.2 Phase I: Simulation of the Loan

Approval Process

In phase I, the loan approval process of the Home

Loan Bank is simulated. Prior to starting phase I, the

moderator has to prepare the simulation room. He

arranges the work stations in the predefined floor

layout (Fig. 3) and distributes the job descriptions.

Each participant chooses one of the prepared work

stations randomly. The job descriptions help the

participants to become familiar with their working

tasks.

Branch North

Branch West

Branch South

Branch East

DM Loan

Approvals

Refinancing

Interoffice

Messenger

Collateral

Rating

Credit

Rating

Interest

Calculation

Loan Approvals

Service Quality

Management

Courier

Application

Routing

Controller

Sales

Manager

Managing

Director

without fixed position

= Chair

= Table

DM = Department Manager

Branch North

Branch West

Branch South

Branch East

DM Loan

Approvals

Refinancing

Interoffice

Messenger

Collateral

Rating

Credit

Rating

Interest

Calculation

Loan Approvals

Service Quality

Management

Courier

Application

Routing

Controller

Sales

Manager

Managing

Director

without fixed position

= Chair

= Table

DM = Department Manager

Figure 3: Floor plan.

In order to address potential start-up problems

and to avoid any misunderstanding, a trial run of the

simulation is conducted first. Then, the actual

simulation of the loan approval process begins. The

objective is to process as many error-free loan

applications within 20 minutes as possible. This

objective has to be achieved within the requirements

of the quality criteria, namely time (a maximum of

four minutes per application), correct credit rating,

and consideration of additional customer

requirements. Each minute the branch offices submit

loan applications via a branch courier to

headquarters. Within a short time, it becomes

apparent that the given process results in significant

problems.

Subsequent to the simulation run, the moderator

leads participants in the analysis of the process. The

incorrect loan applications are analyzed according to

quantity and types of errors.

Generally, most applications will contain a time

error, i.e. their processing required more than the

allotted four minutes. An incorrect credit rating

occurs frequently as well. An analysis of “Work-in-

Process” provides an indication of how many

incomplete loan applications have accumulated at

each step of the process, highlighting bottlenecks

within the process. An analysis of the processing

times provides insights concerning the individual

processing times of each function within the overall

loan approval process (e.g. Collateral Rating). An

optional analysis can be conducted for the total

processing time for each loan application, since such

data has been captured on each loan document. The

significant differences in the processing times echo

participants’ perception that some colleagues were

unable, in spite of greatest work efforts, to handle

the volume of incoming loan applications while

other colleagues spent a significant amount of time

waiting for work to arrive.

In accordance with the moderator’s expectations,

seminar participants easily recognize the need for

process optimization when looking at the large

number of processing errors and the long processing

times. The moderator can then move on to phase II,

the optimization of the loan approval process.

6.3 Phase II: Optimization of the Loan

Approval Process

The moderator can freely decide how to conduct the

optimization of the loan approval process. Most

important is the guidance of the participants towards

a process-oriented driven improvement of the loan

process. In principle, the optimization can utilize the

entire spectrum of available tools for process

improvement. If seminar participants are already

familiar with a methodology for improving

processes like Six Sigma, they should be given their

free choice concerning which of the tools to use.

Process measurement and analysis can be

conducted using the data that were collected during

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the first phase of the simulation (quantity and types

of error analysis, Work-in-Process analysis,

processing time analysis). After the analysis,

participants should be given sufficient time for the

Improve-Phase to optimize the loan approval

process. It is important to note that there is not “one

correct” solution for the redesigned process, but that

participants instead learn to identify causes for

process deficiencies, such as duplicate tasks,

redundant tasks, or unnecessary transportation and

idle times, and that participants are in a position to

accordingly improve the process. Besides designing

a new process flow, participants also develop new

job descriptions and a different floor plan.

6.4 Phase III: Simulation of the

Optimized Loan Approval Process

The newly developed loan approval process is

validated by a new simulation. Now, the participants

prepare the simulation room, arrange the floor layout

of working places, and distribute the new job

descriptions. The new simulation only needs to take

10 minutes this time. The participants are now able

to measure to what extent they have been able to

improve the process by counting the amount of

correct loan approvals within the given timeframe

and comparing the results to the previous simulation.

Experience shows that in every case a significant

improvement in process performance can be

observed. Participants are usually extremely pleased

with their results. Oftentimes, additional ideas for

further improvement are generated during or after

the second simulation run, resulting in lively and

fruitful discussions among participants.

7 CONCLUSIONS

Process-oriented knowledge of employees is a major

success factor for the performance of a process.

Enterprises training their employees have to keep in

mind that such knowledge is tacit knowledge. Only

fractions of that knowledge are accessible in explicit

form to a company’s employees. Aiming at

acquiring process-oriented tacit knowledge,

organisations have to think about ways to train their

employees.

Since role-plays amongst others encompass

social and communicative learning, they can

contribute to the acquisition of tacit knowledge. In

many companies, knowledge about business

processes is mainly bound to individuals and not

explicated in a publicly available manner. Due to

problems like visualising processes in a written form

or updating such documentation promptly,

explication of this knowledge might not be the best

way to reduce the dependency on single persons. It

is often more helpful to support other employees in

acquiring this tacit knowledge. Socializing has been

identified as the most promising approach to acquire

tacit knowledge. As shown previously, the role-play

KreditSim can contribute to acquire, share and apply

knowledge about a company’s business processes.

Employees are stimulated to communicate. In their

common effort to improve a business process, they

learn from one another and share their tacit

knowledge.

The most striking and fascinating experience

facilitators make after conducting the role-play

KreditSim is that discussion and interaction between

participants go far beyond the simulation. Often,

techniques and tools learnt while playing KreditSim

are instantly applied to the participants’ daily

business processes. Not only do participants

exchange tacit knowledge through intensified

discussions. They even become aware about the fact

that they benefit from such an enhanced

communication. Statements like “This was the first

time we talked with each other instead of about each

other” are an evidence that socializing – and thus

social and communicative learning – is crucial to

acquire process-oriented knowledge and that

KreditSim serves as a valuable enabler.

Despite all promising experience gained so far,

there are a number of limitations that might

constrain the success of a role-play in general and

KreditSim in particular. In all seminars, in which

KreditSim was used so far, facilitators were able to

observe that tacit knowledge about processes was

passed on among colleagues. Yet, there is no

systematic approach to acquiring and sharing this

kind of knowledge in KreditSim. Most of it was not

expressed by purpose but more or less randomly.

Improving KreditSim in order to ensure a

proliferation of process knowledge would be a

valuable contribution of further research.

Up to now, all participants of the role-play were

willing to contribute to the improvement of the

simulated process and thus shared their knowledge

with colleagues. Even those who had been sceptic

about the role-play in first place participated with

increasing enthusiasm in the role-play. However,

there is no guarantee that participants are always

willing to contribute to the simulation’s success.

Hence, for future research it is worthwhile to look

into possibilities to spark employees’ interest in

process improvement and share their tacit

knowledge about processes.

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