Call for Responsible BPM Forum

Business Process Management (BPM) is concerned with the design, analysis and management of business processes (Dumas et al. 2018). Traditionally, BPM has emphasized efficiency and effectiveness as the core ambitions of organizational work. In light of the many societal and environmental challenges we are facing today, this forum fosters academic exchange around Responsible Business Process Management (RBPM).

We define RBPM as the practice of applying BPM by accounting for the needs of stakeholders involved in business processes (e.g., workers, and customers), the broader environment (e.g., regulators and natural resources) and society in more general terms (e.g., grand challenges). RBPM can pertain to different activities, such as responsibly designing, implementing and monitoring business processes, as well as developing and using BPM systems in responsible ways. Along these lines, RBPM can be realized to different degrees. At least, RBPM accounts for relevant needs by not producing harm; but it can also imply intentional pursuit of positive effects, such as by pro-actively promoting the well-being of workers and customers, fostering sustainability or addressing societal concerns.

RBPM faces challenges from three perspectives—technological, managerial, and conceptual. From a technological standpoint, issues arise around data security, privacy, and the ethical use of AI and automation. The integration of these technologies often involves handling sensitive information, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and algorithmic bias. In terms of managerial issues, there is a challenge in aligning organizational goals with ethical and sustainable practices, as managers should balance efficiency and profitability with social responsibility. This often includes navigating regulatory requirements and maintaining stakeholder trust. From a conceptual angle, there is the difficulty of embedding principles of responsibility into BPM frameworks, as traditional models are often focused on efficiency and cost-effectiveness rather than ethical, green and social sustainable outcomes. Concepts such as distributive and procedural justice and the tensions that they create on process design, execution, and evaluation, may help shape the idea of “responsibility” in processes, as well as understanding the long-term impact of decisions on society and the environment.

The forum is intended to discuss topics of responsibility along various stages in the BPM lifecycle–including responsible analysis, design and performance, affecting computational as well as managerial sides of BPM. Contributions that theorize the concept of process responsibility and responsible process design are also welcome. 

This forum will be structured into invited talks, paper presentations, and an activity involving the audience, such as a panel. Since RBPM represents a new and only broadly defined effort in the BPM field, we explicitly encourage researchers and practitioners to jointly shape the future of this emerging research stream. 

Topics

The forum invites contributions related to RBPM, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Ethical challenges in process automation and AI integration.
• Data privacy and security in BPM.
• Fairness and bias in BPM algorithms.
• Explainability and Transparency in BPM Technologies.
• Sustainable Process Design and Optimization.
• Incorporating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into BPM.
• Algorithmic Accountability in Process Mining and Analysis.
• Embedding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in BPM.
• Defining and Measuring Responsibility in BPM Systems.
• Ontological Aspects of RBPM.
• Responsible Management of Business Processes.
• Regulatory and Compliance Considerations for RBPM.
• Leadership and Managerial Roles in Promoting RBPM.
• Measuring the Impact of RBPM Initiatives.
• Employee Engagement and Ethical Awareness in Process Management.
• Future Trends and Challenges in RBPM.
• Gender aspects of BPM
• Inclusion and Inclusiveness of Employee Groups, Customer Types and Other Stakeholders

Submission Guidelines

Full Papers

Full papers should present comprehensive research contributions such as theoretical advancements, detailed case studies, or empirical work addressing Responsible Business Process Management (RBPM) from technological, managerial, conceptual, or ethical perspectives. Submissions will be evaluated in terms of fit with one or more of the forum topics, clarity of exposition, relevance of the research topic, rigor of the research methods, and quality of the results obtained. Submissions must be written in English and cannot exceed  15 pages (including references and appendices).

Research-in-Progress Papers

Research-in-progress papers provide an opportunity to share work in its developmental stages, including ongoing studies, partial results, or novel frameworks. These papers should outline the research objectives, methodology, and preliminary findings, with a focus on their potential contribution to RBPM. Submissions will be evaluated in terms of fit with one or more of the forum topics, clarity of exposition, relevance of the research topic, rigor of the proposed research methods, feasibility of the research objective achievement, and potential of the topic and/or the preliminary results to generate an interesting discussion during the forum. Submissions must be written in English and cannot exceed 8 pages (including references and appendices).

Submissions must be prepared according to the format of Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) specified by Springer. The title page of the papers must contain a short abstract. All submissions must contain a list of keywords. Papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format via the BPM 2026 EasyChair submission site by selecting “BPM 2026 Responsible BPM (RBPM) Forum”. Accepted Full and Research-in-Progress papers will be published in the LNBIP proceedings.