For a process enterprise to function, power needs to be distributed in another way than in a vertically defined organization. Knowledge of the processes in the organization is a very important part of changing to a process enterprise. But a proper distribution of power is what enables people to act according to their understanding of process interdependencies. Michael Hammer and Steven Stanton wrote an article for Harvard Business Review titled “How process enterprises really work”

An exerpt:

The power in most companies still resides in vertical units — sometimes focused on regions, sometimes on products, sometimes on functions — and those fiefdoms still jealously guard their turf, their people, and their resources. The combination of integrated processes and fragmented organizations has created a form of cognitive dissonance in many businesses: the horizontal processes pull people in one direction; the traditional vertical management systems pull them in another. Confusion and conflict ensue, undermining performance.

That’s not the way it has to be. in recent years we’ve seen a number of companies make the leap from process redesign to process management. They have appointed some of their best managers to be process owners, and they have given them real authority over work and budgets. They have shifted their focus of their measurement systems from unit goals to process goals, and they have based compensation and advancement directly on process performance.