Aravind Chandrasekaran

In pursuit of implementation patterns: the context of Lean and Six Sigma

Combining Lean practices with Six Sigma has gained immense popularity in recent years. Whether a combined Lean-Six Sigma approach is the latest management fad, or leads to significant performance benefits that exceed isolated implementation is not yet apparent. Using implementation and performance data from a sample of 2511 plants, the research study attempts to uncover associative and predictive pattern of implementation between 15 Lean practices and the Six Sigma program. Our results indicate two major findings. First, implementation of any practice from a broader set of Lean practices improves the likelihood of implementing Six Sigma. Additionally, practices commonly bundled under quality management predict and distinguish the group of plants implementing Six Sigma extensively from non-implementers. Second, the regression results indicate a significant difference in the performance levels of the Six Sigma implementers group compared with the non-implementer group. These preliminary results are a first step towards separating fact from fiction.

The Impact of Combining Conformance and Experiential Quality on Hospitals’ Readmissions and Cost Performance

To investigate the opportunity for hospitals to achieve better care at lower cost, we examine two key process quality measures, conformance quality and experiential quality, and two measures of performance, readmission rate and cost per discharge. Conformance quality represents a hospital’s level of adherence to evidence-based standards of care, whereas experiential quality represents the level of interaction between hospital’s caregivers and patients. Analyzing six years of data from 3,474 U.S. acute care hospitals, we find that combining conformance and experiential quality results in lower readmission rates. However, conformance quality and experiential quality each independently increase cost per discharge, which suggests that a readmissions–costs trade-off is unavoidable. To investigate this further, we conduct post hoc analyses by distinguishing between the granular elements of experiential quality (EQ) based on task type: response-focused EQ and communication-focused EQ. Response-focused EQ measure...

Managing Knowledge Creation in High-Tech R&D Projects: A Multimethod Study

R&D projects in high-tech organizations bring together diverse knowledge domains to quickly develop new products and processes. The fast-paced context of high-tech organizations makes it challenging to create new knowledge and solve complex problems. Managing these R&D projects requires understanding both the mechanisms and the type of knowledge created to achieve project objectives. This research conducts a two-phased multimethod study to understand knowledge creation in high-tech R&D projects. The first phase uses qualitative data to develop a theory on knowledge creation in R&D projects. The second phase involves a survey that collects data from R&D projects to test the theory. Results from the case study find that R&D projects benefit from two types of knowledge – objective and intuitive. The case analyses show that intuitive and objective knowledge creation in high-tech organizations occurs by creating not only diverse but also psychological safe project teams. The large-scale survey finds that team diversity positively influences objective knowledge creation while psychological safety affects intuitive knowledge creation. Surprisingly, the results show that team diversity negatively affects intuitive knowledge creation. A post hoc analysis takes a more granular look at diversity and shows that different kinds of diversity have different effects on knowledge creation. This helps to better explain how to manage innovation across boundaries. Finally, the analysis shows that both objective and intuitive knowledge influence R&D project performance. Taken together, these results help explain how to manage innovation across functional boundaries to create knowledge and enhance R&D project performance.

Managing knowledge creation in high-tech R&D projects

R&D projects in high-tech organizations bring together diverse knowledge domains to quickly develop new products and processes. The fast-paced context of high-tech organizations makes it challenging to create new knowledge and solve complex problems. Managing these R&D projects requires understanding both the mechanisms and the type of knowledge created to achieve project objectives. This research conducts a two-phased multimethod study to understand knowledge creation in high-tech R&D projects. The first phase uses qualitative data to develop a theory on knowledge creation in R&D projects. The second phase involves a survey that collects data from R&D projects to test the theory. Results from the case study find that R&D projects benefit from two types of knowledge – objective and intuitive. The case analyses show that intuitive and objective knowledge creation in high-tech organizations occurs by creating not only diverse but also psychological safe project teams. The large-scale survey finds that team diversity positively influences objective knowledge creation while psychological safety affects intuitive knowledge creation. Surprisingly, the results show that team diversity negatively affects intuitive knowledge creation. A post hoc analysis takes a more granular look at diversity and shows that different kinds of diversity have different effects on knowledge creation. This helps to better explain how to manage innovation across boundaries. Finally, the analysis shows that both objective and intuitive knowledge influence R&D project performance. Taken together, these results help explain how to manage innovation across functional boundaries to create knowledge and enhance R&D project performance.

Do Professional Service Organizations Financially Benefit from Conformance and Experiential Quality

The professional service industry encompasses a major part of the U.S. economy and yet, several factors that affect its financial sustainability remain largely unknown. When catering to their custo...