شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

This study aims at identifying the concept and the reality of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and its connected tasks and activities. It also aims at studying the relationship between the BPR and achieving a competitive advantage at the Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip. The descriptive analytical method is followed to achieve the study's objectives, and the questionnaire is used to collect data. The study population targets academic administrators at the universities and it consists of 164 members. SPSS “Statistical Package for Social Sciences” is used to analyze the data. The researcher obtained a number of results based on the answers given by the academic administrative staff in the questionnaires in the Palestinian universities operating in the Gaza Strip, which are shown in the following: 1) The universities are implementing the BPR at a high rate 71.6%. 2) The competitive advantage of the universities is high, (74.8%). 3) The High Command of the universities supports the BPR implementation (72.6%). 4) The surveyed universities are highly using IT systems with a relative weight of (74.1%). 5) The researched universities are concerned with empowering their employees moderately in the rate of (66.2%). 6) The universities are rebuilding the organizational structure to fit the BPR requirement in the rate of (70.3%). 7) The supportive organizational culture of BPR is available at a high rate (73.2%). 8) There is a statistically significant positive correlation between the BPR and competitive advantage in the universities. 9) There is a statistically significant effect for the following variables arranged according to the importance and influence (organizational culture, the university leadership's commitment, and support) on the competitive advantage of the researched universities. In light of the findings, the researcher presents a number of recommendations that may contribute to enhancing the implementation of the BPR and strengthen the competitive advantage of the universities such as: 1) the need of conducting an assessment study to the IT of the used applications in the Palestinian universities and its appropriateness to the BPR. 2) The need for allocating funds annually directed to BPR in the Palestinian universities, in order to enhance its competitiveness in the accelerated technological advances in information systems. 3) The need for forming permanent committees to discuss the daily operations and to re-engineer them, in order to ensure continuous improvement and to link its performance with achieving the competitive advantage. 4) More empowerment and delegation for the employees are needed. (Author’s abstract)