Abstract:

The modern business environment requires from the organization and its employees exceptional flexibility and innovation in order to build competitive advantage as well as a holistic and process approach to optimize resources and results in constant change driven by digital and green transformation. In this context, employees with process thinking competency are particularly valuable for each organization, which facilitates understanding the ecosystem in which the organization operates, eliminate the silos of the organization, identify bottlenecks and increase the efficiency of processes, as well as improve communication of the organization thanks to understanding the interdependence of commonly performed processes. Preparing new generations of employees equipped with process thinking competency is the task of the education system, in particular higher education institutions. However, while project thinking is already well integrated into study curricula, process thinking rarely appears as one of the key skills and intended learning outcomes. The aim of the article is to present a possible approach to developing students' process thinking, which is a prerequisite for further education in the field of business process management. The article presents a case study of the use of Living Labs as extracurricular activities aimed at immersing students in the process of mapping, analyzing and improvement of the processes that concern them, which translates into increasing their engagement and sharing their ideas, experiences and knowledge of the used products, services or applications. The Living Lab is defined as a user-centric innovation environment built on daily practice and research, with an approach to facilitating user influence in open and distributed innovation processes, involving all relevant partners in real-world contexts, aimed at creating sustainable value. This approach is widely used in industry, sustainable development, designing services for local communities, etc. This method, with a great potential to introduce students to the subject of process management and a developed of competences set in this area, is, however, used to a small extent in higher education. Therefore, based on the case study, the authors make recommendations for instructional strategies using living labs in business process management education.