| Summary: | The strategic alignment and reengineering of business processes is critical for institutions across
sectors worldwide to achieve performance improvement and subsequently, competitive
advantage. Competition within higher education forces higher education institutions, such as
TUT, towards management approaches such as business process reengineering to improve
effectiveness and efficiency. This research was triggered by an observation of a lack of a
framework, within TUT, to guide the manner in which business processes could be strategically
reengineered in a uniform, coordinated, and focused fashion. The main focus of the research was
to identify core elements which could be included in a comprehensive framework to assist higher
education institutions, specifically TUT, to strategically align and reengineer their core business
processes in order to achieve performance improvement, which is a prerequisite for higher
education institutions across sectors to achieve competitive advantage.
The findings of the research were based on the triangulation of data from a robust literature
survey to uncover the theoretical underpinnings and to pinpoint core elements of business
process reengineering and strategic planning, prescripts from legislation and the regulatory
framework governing higher education in South Africa, an analysis of relevant strategic
documents within TUT, and opinions and perceptions of sampled respondents within TUT to
compare and contrast the data gathered.
The findings of the empirical exploration confirmed the problem that triggered the research,
namely, that TUT lacks a framework to guide the manner in which it could strategically align
and reengineer business processes. An analysis of documents within TUT and consistent with the
results of the empirical exploration revealed that although various strategic documents allude to
the strategic alignment and reengineering of business processes, lack of a standardised
methodology hampers the uniform, coordinated, and focused operationalisation of this noble
intent which is critical for the enhancement of strategic planning across sectors worldwide.
Consequently, the main contribution of the research was to develop a comprehensive framework
to guide the manner in which TUT and other similar higher education institutions could
strategically reengineer business processes. The proposed framework advocates an incremental approach to business process reengineering
to allow for the continuous improvement of reengineered business processes. At the core of the
proposed business process reengineering framework is strategy alignment and stakeholder focus.
The framework suggests that when higher education institutions, such as TUT, embark on
business process reengineering, they should realise that they are engaging in a strategic
endeavour and that business processes targeted for reengineering should be of critical importance
to the enhancement of a strategic orientation. It is imperative that higher education institutions,
such as TUT, should prioritise the strategic alignment and reengineering of business processes
that provide stakeholder satisfaction to create competitive advantage and survival.
Considering that TUT and other similar higher education institutions operate as an open system,
the proposed framework is based on the systems approach to management. Given the dynamic
nature of the South African higher education sector, the proposed framework promotes a
business process reengineering methodology which, amongst others, involves the reengineering
of business processes with due consideration of the national higher education imperatives and
legislative requirements. Consideration of the external environment should cover an analysis of
critical developments within higher education, including changes to national legislation and
other national strategic imperatives. TUT and other similar higher education institutions should
continuously monitor changes that might have an impact on their business processes to ensure
timeous and strategic alignment and reengineering of core business processes in accordance with
the changing environment. Due cognisance of the internal factors and acknowledgement of a
need for internal interaction of various departments and operational units within higher education
institutions, such as TUT, should also form the basis of all business process reengineering
efforts.
Given the theoretical underpinning that business process reengineering is a strategic endeavour
and that the strategic alignment of business processes is critical for institutions across sectors to
improve institutional performance so as to achieve competitive advantage and survival,
proposing a comprehensive business process reengineering framework and advocating the
strategic reengineering of business processes within a South African public higher education
institution constitute an advancement of knowledge within the Public Administration field of study. === PhD (Public Management and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015
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