Healthy business processes: How a coherent work environment enhances employee well-being

Abstract

In this contribution to the journal “Group. Interaction. Organization.” (GIO) we take a health-oriented, salutogenic view on business process management. To close the gap regarding the relevance of business process management for well-being in organizations, we examine through which psychological mechanism healthy business processes can enhance employee well-being. Based on the theory of salutogenesis, we expect that healthy business processes are associated with an increased work-related sense of coherence in employees and thereby also with better employee well-being. We tested our hypotheses in a cross-sectional online study with N = 81 employees who worked with business processes. Results showed that work-related sense of coherence mediated the positive relationship between healthy business processes and employee well-being. Although further research is still necessary to substantiate the causal order of effects, our study indicates that healthy business processes can create a coherent and health-promoting work environment and thus well-being in organizations. Organizations can use this knowledge in designing and implementing healthy business processes and in integrating a health-oriented business process management in the occupational health management.