Pernilla Ingelsson

Can selecting the right values help TQM implementation? A case study about organisational homogeneity at the Walt Disney Company

Total quality management (TQM) is often referred to as a value-based management philosophy, built on a set of core values. These TQM values should ideally be conformed to by all employees in order to achieve a thriving organisation. A strong organisational culture with shared core values can therefore be identified as of importance for a successful TQM implementation. This paper discusses how organisations can act to achieve shared values among co-workers. In theory, two strategies appear: to select people who appear to possess the desired values in the first place and to socialise employees once hired. When working with TQM, several examples of socialisation can be found in described techniques and tools, however the selection strategy seems to be both unapplied and underestimated. In order to find empirical examples, a case study was conducted at an organisation which is renowned for the way in which it works with values. A conclusion of this paper is that, as a complement to the use of socialisation, a selection strategy is proposed to achieve shared values in order to facilitate TQM implementation.

Commercial experiences from a customer perspective: Elaborated, defined and distinguished

Purpose – A new type of business offering is currently gaining much attention, a type which in some aspects appears to be distinct from goods and services. These offerings are usually denoted as commercial experiences and are claimed to provide higher customer value than other types of offerings as they, for example, engage customers in an inherently memorable way. The understanding of what constitutes commercial experiences is however still scant. The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at the commercial experience concept from a customer perspective. The paper aims specifically at elaborating and defining commercial experiences as well as distinguishing them from goods and services.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on literature studies.Findings – The authors identify memorable as the fundamental distinctive characteristic for commercial experiences. Memorable events are then shown to be strongly emotional events. Finally the two‐factor structure of affect is used to show that ...

Learning from others to adapt quality management to the future

The purpose of this paper is to compare leadership behaviours from two different approaches with the leadership behaviours within quality management in order to find possible areas for developing leadership within quality management. A case study has been carried out at a Swedish award-winning organisation in order to study leadership behaviours. In-depth interviews have been carried out with the intention to explore how the manager has worked to become one of Swedens best workplaces. Leadership behaviours from three different approaches are summarised in ‘The Core Leadership Behaviours’. The analysis of the leadership methodologies and behaviours used by the leaders and the ‘Core Leadership Behaviours’ from the three different approaches has been summarised for each approach. The comparison indicates that there are interesting leadership behaviours in Change Oriented Leadership, as well as in KaosPilots, that are not established within quality management. The leadership behaviours could complement quality management to meet new and challenging demands from customers and co-workers.

Measuring the importance and practices of Lean values

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the result from a study carried out at an organization, which has recently started applying Lean, to examine changes in the importance and presence ...

Enhancing the study of Lean transformation through organizational culture analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and synthesize approaches to studying Lean transformation to further develop a comprehensive approach that integrates organizational culture analysis and performance measurement systems from a systems perspective. Design/methodology/approach This paper is conceptual in nature and based on a review of the literature in the areas of measuring Lean transformation and studying organizational culture. Three questions guide this conceptual analysis: “What approaches have been used to examine Lean transformation in business and public sector organizations?”; “Is there evidence of a focus on organizational culture in the measurement practices in Lean transformation and, if so, how?”; and “What can we learn from organizational cultural theorists about developing a more comprehensive framework to study Lean transformation?”. The analysis was conducted in two phases: In Phase 1, a database search was conducted using the key words Lean transformation, studying Lean, studying Lean transformation, studying organizational culture in Lean and measuring Lean, from which eight papers were selected. In Phase 2, the authors reviewed two models for studying organizational culture. Findings Findings indicated that the dominant approach to study and measure Lean transformation is based on the performance measurement model. Based on this approach, there was little evidence of a focus on organizational culture, and few integrated the human dimensions with the tools and practices. The authors also found evidence of a greater awareness of the need to develop a balanced performance measurement system that reflects both the subjective soft measures and the objective hard measures. Among the approaches studied, two models did reflect integration between hard and soft measures: Dahlgaard et al.’s (2011) 4Ps and Najem et al. ’s (2012) assessment model for studying organizational culture in Lean. Both of these methods provide a strong framework from which to further enhance the study of Lean transformation by incorporating elements from Bantz’s (1993) organizational communication culture method and Martin’s (1992) Matrix concept. Originality/value This paper furthers the academic dialogue on measuring Lean transformation through its unique analysis of studying organizational culture.

The need for a long-term mindset when measuring the effects of lean on health-related quality management values: A case study from the public sector

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects a lean initiative has on the health-related quality management (QM) values, “Leadership Commitment” and “Participation of Everybody,” as well as on perceived co-worker health in the public sector. Design/methodology/approach A case study was carried out at a municipal division that had been working with lean for approximately 18 months. A questionnaire was used to measure the effect on health-related QM values both before and after the initial 18 month period. Documents from the intended lean implementation were studied at the starting point and after 18 months; this was followed up by examining new documents. The results from the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and the documents were analyzed by means of document comparisons and consensus discussion in the research group. Findings The effects on the health-related QM values; “Leadership Commitment” and “Participation of everybody” in this study showed that the values still permeated the organization to a relatively high extent after 18 months but that no statistical differences can be shown between the two measurement points. When measuring what effects a lean initiative has on values, a period of 18 months might be too short, if significance changes are expected. None the less, the results can be a way of monitoring the development of these softer values. Something that is equally important is to see if there have been any major changes, as a way of keeping the work with building a new culture alive and in focus. The results strengthen the assumption that a long-term mindset is needed when QM initiatives such as lean are applied within an organization especially when changes to values and workplaces are expected. Originality/value This study has further explored the QM in relation to lean in the respect of how the QM values “Leadership commitment” and “Participation of Everybody” are effected by a lean initiative.

Storytelling: a co-creative process to support value-based leadership

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify constraints and possibilities to develop a value-based leadership in manufacturing using storytelling as a co-creative method and process.Design/meth ...

Building an organizational culture when delivering commercial experiences – the leaders’ perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify, present and analyze the strengths and weaknesses mentioned by leaders when describing how their organization works with creating customer value i ...

How Communicative Leadership influences co-workers’ health : A Quality Management perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe leaders’ views on how Communicative Leadership influences co-worker health by comparing their opinions with the health-related values within Quali ...

Measuring Appreciative Inquiry, Lean and Perceived Co-worker Health

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a developed questionnaire which measure Appreciative Inquiry, Lean values and co-workers health. The purpose is also to explore if and how Appreciative Inquiry correlates with Lean values and co-workers’ perceived health in an organisation working with Lean. Methodology/Approach: To investigate the relationship between Lean, Appreciative Inquiry and perceived co-worker health, a questionnaire was developed based on two previously tested questionnaires. The new questionnaire was answered by 841 co-workers at a Swedish municipality and was then analysed to explore in what way Appreciative Inquiry correlates with a number of Lean values as well as perceived co-worker health. Findings: All variables were found to be significantly correlated with the variable ‘Appreciative Inquiry’. The variable ‘Continuous improvements’ relates most to ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ followed by ‘Eliminating Waste’ as those variables can be considered to have a large positive relationship. ‘Supportive Leadership’ and ‘System view’ have a medium positive relation to ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ and the variables ‘Health’ and ‘Customt.er focus’ have a small relation to Appreciative Inquiry in this contex.