Balázs Heidrich

The impact of shop floor culture and subculture on lean production practices

Purpose The purpose of this paper to examine the impact of shop floor (SF) culture (organizational culture (OC) perceived by workers) and SF subcultures assessed by the competing values framework (CVF) on the perceived use of lean production (LP) practices. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse questionnaires completed by workers at the single case company undergoing a commonplace lean transformation. The survey items cover both LP items and CVF statements. The propositions are analysed applying cluster analysis and regression. Findings At the case company, the multidimensionality of SF culture only partially exists, and the perceived use of LP practices shows little connection to OC. The considerable differences between SF culture and SF subcultures on the one hand and among SF subcultures on the other hand indicate the existence of a special multidimensional SF culture. Altogether, SF culture’s impact on LP is weak. Practical implications Managers should rethink the usual lean implementation pathways and understand how values pervade SF culture and how culture types impact the perceived use of LP practices at the SF. Managers could face a trade-off: smoother lean transition by engaging in SF subculture-specific transitions and reinforcing it or by developing a homogenous lean SF culture. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical attempt to understand the impact of SF culture on the perceived use of LP practices by adopting a validated OC measurement tool. Furthermore, the study provides insight into workers’ subcultures.

Everything changes? A repeated cross-sectional study of organisational culture in the public sector

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how organisational culture has changed between 2011 and 2016 in a higher education institution (HEI) that has been faced with both significant internal and external changes. There are three areas to be examined: the change in culture on an organisational level, the demographic changes in the workforce, and the changes in values and perceptions of the workforce over time. Design/methodology/approach - This is an explorative study and a repeated cross-sectional study of the organisation. The authors used the same methodology and approach for both the 2011 and 2016 studies, namely, the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument was used to ascertain respondents values and perceptions. The instrument was distributed in printed format to all members of staff and approval was received prior to distribution. Results were tested for significance using Cronbach’s Findings - There were demographic changes in the workforce primarily for age, occupation and tenure of staff, but little change in gender. Despite these changes in the workforce, on an organisational level perceptions and values have changed little over the five-year period, despite a multitude of external and internal developments. Although there were statistically significant differences between culture types and demographics (age, tenure, gender and occupation), there was no single demographic with a statistically significant difference for a particular culture type, either in values or perceptions. Research limitations/implications - The study questions the concept of organisational culture being affected by internal integration and external adaptation over time. Results indicate that culture is, by itself, either slow to react change, or does not react at all. A high response rate would be best for getting a clear picture of the culture of the organisation and a qualitative study is necessary (and planned) to develop the findings further, as well as triangulate the findings of this study. Practical implications - This study should be of interest to practitioners as it presents the caveat that organisational culture of this study cannot be expected to change on its own, and highlights the need for a planned change process for the organisational culture to adapt to the changing needs of both the external and internal environments. The potential for resistance to change in this organisation appears is high and values and perceptions appear unrelated to any particular demographic. Social implications - Although the authors cannot generalise from this longitudinal case study, the authors can consider some potential social implications, especially if further studies confirm the findings. First, despite government attempts to develop higher education in Hungary, staff perceptions and values within the institution are harder to change. Second, any attempts to revitalise the organisation from the inside (such as in this case with the forced retirement of older employees) seem unfruitful. Finally, the HEI is struggling to survive, and yet employees seem to not be a part of that struggle. Originality/value - Although there are studies of organisational culture in HEIs, very few have undertaken a longitudinal approach. The study takes place in a unique situation: just before and just after extreme changes – both internally and externally – have taken place. Few studies question the organic and evolving nature of culture as it is difficult to predict when changes will occur. The study is in the unique position of having been able to do so.

Managing Succession and Knowledge Transfer in Family Businesses: Lessons from a Comparative Research

The most natural mode of family firm succession is the intergenerational ownership transfer. Statistical evidence, however, suggests that in most cases the succession process fails. There can be several reasons as a lot of personal, emotional and structural factors can act as an inhibitor to succession. The effectiveness of the implementation of any succession strategy is strongly dependent on the efficiency of intergenerational knowledge transfer, which is related to the parties’ absorptive capacity and willingness to learn. The paper is based on the experiences learned from the INSIST project. In the framework of the project different aspects of family business succession have been investigated in three participating countries (Hungary, Poland and the United Kingdom). The aim of the paper is to identify the patterns of management, succession, knowledge transfer and learning in family businesses. Issues will be examined in detail such as the succession strategies of companies investigated and the efforts family businesses and their managers make in order to harmonize family goals (such as emotional stability, harmony, and reputation) with business- related objectives (e.g. survival, growth or profitability).

The World I Know: Knowledge Sharing and Subcultures in Large Complex Organisations

Practitioners and researchers have agreed upon the fact that the culture of organizations is one of the most difficult challenges and holds the key to the success of knowledge management. The basis for formation of subcultures has been found in empirical studies to range from age and gender though to department and function within the organization and have a range of both positive and negative impact upon the performance of a range of areas in an organization. We examine how knowledge in its various forms may have an impact on the formation of subcultures on knowledge sharing, and through a quantitative approach, our explorative study uncovers five subcultures in a Hungarian higher education institution. Our findings confirm subcultural boundaries and tribes and territories in this context and we apply these findings to existing theory on the evolutionary nature of strategy implementation as a means of considering the potential impact of subcultures on knowledge management initiatives. We conclude that subcultural lenses affect the assimilation of knowledge from management in general and find that multiculturalism in this large complex organisation is likely the best approach as each subculture has its own specific range of competencies as part of an overall market orientation. As a concluding section, we offer a ‘subcultural audit’ model for practitioners that may reduce the subcultural obstacles to knowledge sharing as part of knowledge management programs.

Heart and Soul: Transferring ‘Socio-emotional Wealth’ (SEW) in Family Business Succession:

Abstract The importance of the family business (FB) is not only stable but it is also improving its position in the global economy and playing a key role in the European economy. They represent 60 per cent of the employment and more than 60 million jobs in the private sector. But they face many internal challenges, of which the importance of ‘company succession’ is growing together with the need for technology renewal and attracting the right skills/talents (PwC, 2014). This article focuses on the transfer of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) as a key intangible asset during intergenerational changes in the FB (Debicki, Kellermanns, Chrisman, Pearson, & Spencer, 2016; Gómez-Mehija, Takács Haynes, Núnez-Nickel, Jackobson, & Moyano-Fuentes, 2007; Martinez-Romero & Rojo-Ramírez, 2016). Using empirical experiences based on multi-site company case studies in three countries (Hungary, Poland and the UK), the analysis presents the transfer of the following key components of the SEW to the next generation: a trust-based social-system, generic human values (namely, openness, mutual respect, correctness, reliability and responsibility) and ‘practice based–embedded collective knowledge’. We find that a key lesson is that transferring physical assets in the succession process seems to be less important than the transfer of the intangible ones embedded in the company’s culture because of the complex, informal and dynamic nature of the transferring mechanisms and of the role they play in sustaining entrepreneurial willingness and economic success over generations.

The Pendulum Strikes Back? An Analysis of the Evolution of Hungarian Higher Education Governance and Organisational Structures since the 1980s.

Higher education in Central Europe has been scrutinised from many different perspectives during the last 30 years. In our analysis, we focus solely on Hungary and specifically on two key areas: governance and organisational structure. Using an analytical model proposed by Leisyte (2014), we analyse how the governance and organisational structure of institutions have changed between 1985 and 2015, and consider what the driving forces might be behind these changes. Through our analysis, we found that the pendulum effect observed in organisational culture and leadership in Eastern Europe (Bakacsi, 2014) in periods of transition could also be identified in the governance models in Hungary. Despite evidence of a convergence of higher education policies in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic (Dobbins, 2011) towards the market-type model of higher education governance, we found that in Hungary the model is much more state-controlled and there is already an apparent move away from foreign-inspired ideals and models. It is suggested that Hungary is ahead of the apparent trend in other countries where they have yet to experience a swing in the opposite direction.

Running in the Family – Paternalism and Familiness in the Development of Family Businesses

The study focuses on two features of family businesses (FBs), namely familiness and paternalism. These two concepts are inseparable in two ways: inseparable from family businesses and also from each other. Family businesses differ from one another in the degree of family involvement, leadership and management in the business. Paternalism as a leadership attitude is naturally present in FBs, especially in the founding stage of development. This feature provides the solid bases for establishing a strong and proud culture built around the personality and success of the founder. This characteristic however can become a major hindering factor upon succession. Through a review of the literature and the INSIST studies for Central Europe this study aims to identify the supportive and limiting factors of both phenomena and examine the case studies of the INSIST research project for signs of the existence of these supportive and limiting factors. It is found that the degree of familiness in these firms is a sliding scale and a lack of familiness is not a precursor for failure. Paternalism is found to be broken down into authoritarian, benevolent, moral and enlightened. After discovering studies claiming that paternalism is a stage in the process of leadership style changing from participative to autocratic (or vice versa) and that Central Europe and the current era of instability and uncertainty lead to employees preferring a more autocratic or paternalistic style, our findings suggest that there are more driving than restraining forces for family firms adopting a paternalistic style. Furthermore many cases appear to be on the path from an authoritative towards a more enlightened paternalistic leadership style either out of choice in the search to shake off the drawbacks of other types of paternalism or as part of a natural evolution of this particular leadership style within the context of this study.

Knowledge generation and utilization in wiki supported teamwork – An experiment

With the rapid advance of communication technologies and the free-flow of information, the concept of collaboration extends beyond physical locations and time zones in the form of virtual teams that are globally connected. This study considers how modern Web 2.0 based collaborative technologies (wikis) relate knowledge creation and utilization in student groups and aims to find out if these collaborative technologies are better suited to tasks requiring extensive asynchronous collaboration in an educational setting. To perform controlled experiments a sample of student teams that have worked in technologically and demographically diverse groups was selected, from which we had 49 experimental and 48 control teams with 193 and 192 participants respectively. We found that wiki technologies do not suit all kinds of tasks and do not always increase knowledge creation, knowledge maintenance, problem solving and thus knowledge utilization in team collaboration.