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

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für angewandte Organisationspsychologie (2025) 56:441–449 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11612-025-00827-y HAUPTBEITRÄGE – THEMENTEIL Healthy business processes: How a coherent work environment enhances employee well-being Selina S. Richter1 · Julia A. M. Reif2 · Erika Spieß1 · Rita Berger3 Accepted: 10 July 2025 / Published online: 1 August 2025 © The Author(s) 2025 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. Keywords Business processes · Health · Well-being · Work-related sense of coherence  Julia A. M. Reif 1 Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany 2 Department of Business Administration, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Werner Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85579 Neubiberg, Germany 3 Departament de Psicologia Social i Quantitativa, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain K 442 S. S. Richter et al. Gesunde Arbeitsprozesse: Wie eine kohärente Arbeitsumgebung das Wohlbefinden der Mitarbeitenden fördert Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag für die Zeitschrift „Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation.“ (GIO) betrachten wir Arbeitsprozesse aus einer gesundheitsorientierten, salutogenetischen Perspektive. Um die Forschungslücke hinsichtlich der Bedeutung des Arbeitsprozessmanagements für das Wohlbefinden in Organisationen zu schließen, untersuchen wir, durch welchen psychologischen Mechanismus gesunde Arbeitsprozesse das Wohlbefinden von Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern steigern können. Auf Grundlage der Theorie der Salutogenese erwarten wir, dass gesunde Arbeitsprozesse mit einem gesteigerten arbeitsbezogenen Kohärenzgefühl der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter zusammenhängen und damit einhergehend auch mit einem höheren Wohlbefinden. Zur Überprüfung unserer Hypothesen führten wir eine Querschnittsstudie mit N = 81 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern durch, die im Zuge ihrer Arbeit Arbeitsprozesse anwendeten. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass das arbeitsbezogene Kohärenzgefühl den positiven Zusammenhang zwischen gesunden Arbeitsprozessen und dem Wohlbefinden der Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter vermittelte. Auch wenn noch weitere Forschung erforderlich ist, um die kausale Reihenfolge der Effekte zu untermauern, deutet unsere Studie darauf hin, dass gesunde Arbeitsprozesse ein kohärentes und gesundheitsförderndes Arbeitsumfeld und damit Wohlbefinden in Organisationen schaffen können. Organisationen können dieses Wissen bei der Gestaltung und Implementierung gesunder Arbeitsprozesse und bei der Integration eines gesundheitsorientierten Arbeitsprozessmanagements in das betriebliche Gesundheitsmanagement nutzen. Schlüsselwörter Arbeitsprozesse · Gesundheit · Wohlbefinden · Arbeitsbezogenes Kohärenzgefühl 1 Introduction Business processes, defined as “end-to-end work across an enterprise that creates customer value” (Hammer 2015, p. 4), are often considered when evaluating an organization’s effectiveness, but rarely, when it comes to health within an organization (cf. Van Looy and Shafagatova 2016; Shafagatova et al. 2023)—although burdensome rules, regulations, or procedures are often perceived as a classic hindrance stressor (cf. Reif et al. 2022). At the same time, health promotion and stress management at work are gaining increasing attention in organizations. For example, individual stress prevention programs (e.g., Tetrick and Winslow 2015) or well-being interventions (e.g., Meyers et al. 2013) have been shown to foster employees’ well-being. Hereby, we understand the terms health and well-being synonymously as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (World Health Organization 1946, p. 1315). Most of the programs targeting employees’ well-being are secondary interventions and therefore “attempt to reduce the severity of stress symptoms” (Richardson and Rothstein 2008, p. 70), compared to primary interventions, which “attempt to alter the sources of stress” at work (Richardson and Rothstein 2008, p. 70). One way to not only deal with the negative consequences of an unhealthy work design, but to already organize the dayto-day work in a health-promoting way, is to design and implement healthy business processes (cf. Reif et al. 2022). Such healthy business processes are processes with a clear K process description, user-friendly tools, flexibility in nonstandard situations, and full management support (Reif et al. 2022). Designing such processes is an especially relevant approach for primary interventions, as in every organization, employees have to work with business processes (Dumas et al. 2018). Previous research has shown that healthy business processes are not only related to better process performance and acceptance, but also to less stress and more job satisfaction, commitment, and team collaboration (Reif et al. 2022). Although prior research indicates that healthy business processes can positively impact employees who work with these processes, the psychological mechanisms through which healthy business processes impact employees remain unknown. Work-related sense of coherence has been argued to constitute such a mechanism for the impacts of organizational context factors in general (Eberz and Antoni 2016) and healthy business processes in particular (Reif et al. 2022) on employee well-being. Building on the theory of salutogenesis (Antonovsky 1979), healthy business processes should enable employees as process users to perceive comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness at work (cf. Reif et al. 2022), which then should foster their well-being (Antonovsky 1979). Therefore, we expect that healthy business processes are associated with an increased work-related sense of coherence (...truncated)