A transformational organisational framework for improving Iraqi quasi-governmental construction companies’ performance
Rising globalisation, the liberalisation of international trade and rapid technological development over the last two decades have subjected the business environment to rapid, dynamic change. In the face of such change, seminal researchers and business leaders have reached a conclusion that Business Process (BP) is the core of an organisation. Thus, in order to survive, grow, and stay ahead of the competition in today’s turbulent environment, organisations need to mainly focus on improving their business processes. Similarly, the Iraqi business environment, after the 2003 conflict, have been subject to profound change influenced by the radical changes to Iraq’s political and economic systems. These changes have directly impacted on Iraqi Quasi-Governmental Construction Companies (IQGCCs) where, after decades of domination over most publicly funded construction contracts, these companies face now fierce competition from in excess of 3,500 local and international private firms. As a result, IQGCCs have subsequently struggled to both win contracts and generate profit and the majority have incurred substantial financial losses, becoming unsustainable burdens on the national budget. Although the Iraqi government has attempted to reform the performance of these companies, most of these efforts have ended in their recapitalisation, rather than the identification and resolution of their problems. Accordingly, through employing Business Process Management (BPM) as a comprehensive and widely used approach to increase BP’s principles in an organisation, this research aims to synthesise a transformational organisational framework to address the challenges emanating from current practice within IQGCCs with the view to determining a step change improvement that could ultimately enhance their bottom line performances. To achieve this aim, an exploratory study, which comprised three companies selected from IQGCCs as case studies, was conducted with the aim of mapping and examining the current operational processes employed by these companies and pinpointing the main challenges existing in these processes. Thereafter, a series of semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten experts selected from various management levels of three IQGCCs in order to test the applicability of the theoretical framework developed from the literature to address the challenges inherent in the IQGCCs’ processes. Based on the experts’ responses, the theoretical framework was refined and then further validated through four more semi-structured interviews to produce the final recommended transformational organisational framework for IQGCCs. The study empirically uncovered a number of challenges and impediments inherent in the IQGCCs’ current practices that need to be overcome if their performances are to be enhanced. Many reasons were also identified and grouped together as underpinning causes of the current challenges and barriers to efficiency. The study also showed that the IQGCCs could solve most of the identified challenges through shifting their focus from a traditional functional orientation to a business process orientation. To facilitate this, the study produced a transformational organisational framework that acts as a roadmap to streamline and continuously improve Iraqi QGCCs’ core business processes and, ultimately, institute the business process’ principles within these companies.
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