Achieving employee commitment for continuous improvement initiatives

Abstract

Purpose – Although prior research has found that employee participation is key to successfully implementing quality management initiatives (Baird et al., 2011; de Menezes, 2012; Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005), little research in operations management exists that investigates which management actions and behaviors lead to employee commitment to such initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the operations management literature by investigating which influence tactics are the most effective in soliciting employee commitment to continuous improvement tasks. The paper also examines how influence tactics affect the supervisor-subordinate relationship and the manager’s effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was used to measure supervisor-subordinate relationship quality, usage of influence behaviors and participants’ task commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Findings – The results indicate that five of the 11 influence tactics identified in the prior literature, i.e., collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion, are significant and strong predictors of employee commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Further, analyses show that these influence tactics are significant drivers of the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, which was found to partially mediate the relationship between influence tactics and the supervisor’s effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement projects. Research limitations/implications – Since the extant CI and Total Quality Management literature has looked at the plant or program level rather than the worker-level as in the research, the findings offer one explanation as to why earlier studies investigating the relationship between quality management programs and increased organizational performance reported mixed results. Practical implications – Increasing managers’ awareness and usage of influence tactics may increase the success rate of continuous improvement projects as well the quality of the relationship with the manager’s subordinates. Originality/value – While the extant literature has argued that management support and employee commitment are key components of a continuous improvement project implementation, little has been written about the specific management actions and behaviors that lead to success.

Investigating the readiness of people in manufacturing SMEs to embark on Lean Six Sigma projects

“…(Soltani and Wilkinson, 2010). This is in contrast with contemporary research (Lam et al, 2015) that recognised CI as the ongoing process improvement with crucial role in a TQM environment.…”

“…An appropriate organisational culture has been widely considered as necessity for any TQM practice including LSS (Kanpp, 2015;Antony, 2014, Zu et al, 2010Mosadegh rad, 2006), whilst more recently the gap in the empirical research examining the association between organisational culture and TQM practices has also been acknowledged (Lam et al, 2015;Baird et al, 2011). Other studies have suggested that organisational culture, leadership and behavioural aspects are soft critical factors in all TQM practices (Calvo-Mora et al, 2014;Laohavichien et al, 2011;Baird et al, 2011).…”

“…Pisani et al (2009) cited in Tanik and Sen (2012) claim that success and failure of Six Sigma are strongly related to the culture of the society where the projects are carried out. Collaboration as a characteristic of corporate organisational culture will support the organisational change and successful implementation of any TQM practice (Lam et al, 2015;Baird et al, 2011;Mosadegh Rad, 2006). Cross-functionality of communication and collaboration have been identified as a key factor for a successful LSS project (Choi et al, 2012).…”

“…It is also clear from a number of research studies that LSS is not dissimilar to many other TQM practices and because of this is heavily dependent on collective, individual, team and organisational learning behaviour as well as organisational or individual interests to create knowledge and skill (Lam et al, 2015;Calvo-Mora et al, 2014;Arumugam et al, 2013;Hilton and Sohal, 2012;Neumann and Dul, 2010;Baird et al, 2011;Soltani and Wilkinson, 2010;Jimenez-Jimenez and Martinez-Costa, 2009). …”

“…When some of this research is explored closely it is clear that there are parallels with other areas of operations management. For example, a longitudinal study of LSS found a positive association between human resource management practices such as empowerment, extensive training and teamwork with TQM in the manufacturing and service sector (Lam et al, 2015;Stanton et al, 2014;Menezes et al, 2010). A further LSS study in the large "heavy automotive manufacturing supply" sector in developing countries (e.g.…”