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Example A.

Example A.

Source publication
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Workarounds in business processes and information systems (IS) have attracted research attention in recent years. Deviating from official processes, workarounds are goal-driven adaptations. Understanding the underlying problems or perceived barriers that motivate workarounds is essential for suggesting appropriate solutions which would lead to proc...

Context in source publication

Context 1
... related to local goals derived from their root goal. In both examples the misalignment is between those goals and the goals of the external actor through the dependencies, as follows: (1) Goal misalignment was detected between the "Achieve high sales targets performance" and "Obtain a real picture of the expected sales for planning" goals. In Fig. 5, the dependency of the management actor for the goal "Obtain a real picture of the expected sales for planning" relates to the goal "Progress price proposals" of the customer manager, since when price proposals are entered and progressed in the IS, they are visible to management and serve as an indication of expected future sales. ...

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Citations

... Proposing a method for detecting this behavior is, therefore, a valuable contribution for practice. As this is a workaround behavior, its detection can also serve as a basis for process improvements, as suggested by Outmazgin and Soffer [34]. The identification of contextual association among cases is also of considerable importance. ...
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Business process management, design, and analysis is mostly centered around a process model, which depicts the behavior of a process case (instance). As a result, behavior that associates several cases together has received less attention. Yet, it is important to understand and track associations among cases, as they bear substantial consequences for compliance with regulations, root cause analysis of performance issues, exception handling, and prediction. This paper presents a framework of cross-case association patterns, categorized as intended association patterns and contextual association patterns. It further conceptualizes two example patterns—one for each category, and proposes techniques for detecting these patterns in an event log. The “split-case” workaround is an example of a pattern in the intended association category, and its proposed detection method exemplifies how patterns in this category can be approached. The patterns of a shared entity and a shared resource are contextual association patterns, which we propose to detect by means of hidden concept drifts. Evaluation of the two detection approaches is reported, using simulated logs for assessing their internal validity as well as real-life ones for exploring their external validity.
... Although the interplay among these antecedents provides insights into the motivations for developing such systems, it does not add up to a comprehensive theory. Outmazgin et al. (2020) suggested that workarounds stem from conflicts among goals and can be analyzed accordingly, but did not propose a theoretical basis. ...
... We also observe that the process step or system to which the workaround applies is where an opportunity is identified (e.g., splitting orders; Dubinsky and Soffer 2021), whereas the underlying problem that motivates it can be rooted elsewhere (e.g., a conflict between a need to quickly respond to a customer and a process that requires a long trail of approvals). Furthermore, conflicts and misalignments that motivate workarounds can be detected using designated analysis techniques (Outmazgin et al. 2020). Specific misalignments and conflicts can be resolved in many ways. ...
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Workarounds are a common practice in a broad range of organizational and technological contexts, which has received much attention in information systems research. They are sometimes considered negatively, associated with business risks and noncompliance, and sometimes positively, as a source of innovation and improvement. Although workaround-based process improvements typically adopt the workaround if its consequences are not harmful, this is not always the best option. The paper aims to pave the way for leveraging workarounds for process improvement by understanding problems that motivate them, so alternative solutions can be developed for these problems. Despite many proposed explanations, an in-depth understanding of the reasons underlying employee decisions that lead to workarounds is still needed. To this end, following a qualitative research approach, data were collected in six case study organizations, investigating workaround decisions made by employees through the lens of the theory of planned behavior. The principal unique theme running throughout the findings is that workaround motivation stems from perceived misalignment between organizational, local unit, or personal goals and their realization in business processes. Workarounds are enabled by various factors, including perceived workaround opportunities in the organization. These findings are abstracted to form an explanatory model as a contextual adaptation of the theory of planned behavior to explain workaround intentions. The proposed model explains workaround decisions in a way that can leverage this understanding to promote concrete process improvements.