What does ‘leadership’ entail in public sector BPM initiatives of developing nations: Insights from an interpretative case study from Sri Lanka

Business Process Management (BPM) is recognized as a holistic approach aimed at achieving organization-wide higher performance by optimizing business processes. While Leadership has constantly been recognized as one of the critical success factors of BPM initiatives globally, the nature and characteristics of leadership within BPM contexts is an under-researched area. Related research pertaining to the developing country context is very scarce. The organizational and cultural factors of developing countries are quite distinct compared to the developed world. The success of BPM depends on a number of socio-technical factors, leadership being one of them. The nature of leadership in complex socio-culture, socio-political, and socio-technical contexts requires a deeper understanding of these factors, and the nature and role of leadership in approaches like BPM need further investigation. The goal of the single case study reported herein was to develop a deeper understanding of ‘leadership’ in the context of ICT driven BPM initiatives in one of the Sri Lankan Government agencies: Department of Motor Transport (DMT-SL). An exploratory case study approach was used for this research where data was collected through in-depth interviews and secondary documents. The qualitative data analysis was supported by the use of NVivo. Insights from the data were used to formulate twelve (12) core leadership actions in public sector organizations in Sri Lanka that can influence BPM initiatives.