Understanding the main organisational antecedents of employee participation in continuous improvement

Vision Communication and Firm Quality Performance: The Mediating Role of Employee Involvement and the Moderating Effect of Leader Support

Vision communication (VC) is an important way for leaders to express their ideas about a blueprint of the future to convince employees that their work is valuable and meaningful in total quality management. This research studies the influence of vision communication (VC) on quality performance (QP) through the mediation of total employee involvement (EI) and the moderation of leader support (LS). With the use of Smartpls 3.0, the collected data based on 2996 samples in Shanghai were used to analyze the various constructs. The results show that both VC and EI affect QP and should be influenced by LS. EI was found to partially mediate the relationship between VC and QP. The results also demonstrate that EI can positively affect improvement in QP via stronger LS and that high-level employee involvement is positively associated with quality performance when leader support is high (vs. low). This research can be inferred as one of the very limited empirical analyses that explored the mediating impact of EI on VC and QP. In the quality management (QM) field, the exploration of the moderating effect of LS on the mediation of the EI between VC and QP can be viewed to be a significant theoretical finding. The findings will be instrumental in assisting managers and administrators in understanding the significance of vision communication and leader support in quality management practice.

Power and politics of leading change in emergency departments: A qualitative study of Australasian emergency physicians

OBJECTIVE

The ability to lead change is well recognised as a core leadership competency for clinicians, including emergency physicians. However, little is known about how emergency physicians' think about change leadership. The present study explores Australasian emergency physicians' beliefs about the factors that help and hinder efforts to lead change in Australasian EDs.

METHODS

An online modified Delphi study was conducted with 19 Fellows of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. To structure the process, participants were sorted into four panels. Using a three-phase Delphi process, participants were guided through a process of brainstorming, narrowing down and ranking the factors that help and hinder attempts to lead change. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to code and interpret the qualitative data set emerging from participants' responses through the final ranking phase.

RESULTS

A wide array of self-, ED- and hospital-related enablers and barriers of leading change were identified, the relative importance of which varied as a function of panel. Five core themes characterised emergency physicians' conceptions of change leadership in hospitals: challenging environments of competing interests and tribalism; need for trust and psychological safety to sustain collaboration; challenges of navigating complex hierarchies; need to garner executive leadership support and; need to maintain a growth mindset and motivation to practice change leadership.

CONCLUSION

The findings of our study provide new insight into emergency physicians' conceptions of the nature, barriers to and enablers of change and point to new directions in leadership development to support emergency physicians' aspirations in the context of quality, organisation and health systems improvement.

Deploying Sustainability Through Employee Participation. An Action Research Proposal

Society is increasingly aware of and sensitive to the deployment of sustainability. Therefore, firms must implement policies that not only have a positive effect on their sustainable behavior but also contribute to improving their competitivity. In this dual context of sustainability and competitiveness, there has been little in-depth analysis in the academic literature of the positive impact of structured employee participation systems. The main aim of this paper is to propose and apply a methodology for the joint development of sustainability and competitiveness by means of such systems. The methodology will draw on the basic principles of continuous improvement based on a literature review but also by adopting an Action Research approach, in which the researchers and companies collaborate to create useful knowledge for both parties. Likewise, this paper also illustrates its implementation at a Spanish food product manufacturer. The paper shows the potential in both the research and business spheres, as it provides a useful guide for improving sustainability and competitiveness through the deployment of structured employee participation systems. Likewise, the paper also illustrates the usefulness of researchers and practitioners collaborating shoulder to shoulder to generate and transfer knowledge.

Examining online learning platform characteristics and employee engagement relationship during Covid-19

Purpose

As work-from-home policies were being implemented during Covid-19, organizations have been migrating their learning and development programs to digital platforms. This study aims to understand the role of employees’ perceptions about four key attributes of online learning platforms (OLPs), namely, online environment, ease of use, online content (OC) and online engagement anchors in their levels of work engagement (WE). Further, it also investigates how the personality attributes of the employees and financial incentives for online learning influence this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the snowball sampling technique, online questionnaires were distributed to about 350 employees in four IT firms in India who were working from home during the Covid-19 period. The total number of valid responses was 306 and consisted of software developers, technical leads, process specialists, testers and managers. The analysis was done using Python software (V.3.7.4) packages and Process Macro (pyprocessmacro V.1.0.8) developed for Python.

Findings

Perceived OLP features significantly influence employee WE. OC and ease of use are significant influencers of employee WE. The perception of OLP features indirectly affects WE through the learner’s personality characteristics. Moreover, the financial incentive to learn online shares a negative interaction effect with OLP features to influence WE.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the existing literature on virtual knowledge management by identifying the driving factors that reinforce the acceptance of OLPs. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to link online learning management system key characteristics with employee outcome as engagement. Most of the previous work has ignored exploring such a relationship in an organizational setting.

Supporting participatory innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative study of enterprise social media use

Purpose

The need for accelerating innovation is exacerbated as organizations struggle to either adapt or perish in this unforgiving condition due to the COVID-19 disruption. To address this issue, many organizations have embraced employee-driven participatory innovation to survive and thrive albeit the uncertainties. This study aims to investigate the role of enterprise social media (ESM) in supporting and facilitating these efforts.

Design/methodology/approach

This study first identified the underlying mechanisms that allow ESM use to foster and maintain participatory innovation and then reexamined how these mechanisms played out during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The data was collected through a questionnaire in two phases, before and during work-from-home mandates, and the results were analyzed and compared to capture similarities and differences.

Findings

The results revealed that innovation culture and management support mediated the effects of ESM use on three measures of innovation productivity in both conditions. Interestingly, the effect of ESM use was more prominent in driving innovation in the work-from-home condition. This effect was not limited to the direct effect of ESM use on innovation productivity but on innovation culture and management support as well.

Originality/value

The results suggest that ESM offer a potentially useful path to support and enable employees to participate in the innovation processes, especially when they work remotely or in a distributed team. More generally, this paper should be of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in understanding, implementing and evaluating enterprise social software applications and encouraging employee-driven participatory innovation.

Continuous improvement behaviors and impacts on innovation

Purpose

This paper investigates whether adopting continuous improvement (CI) behaviors is related to better radical and incremental product and process innovation performance and identifies whether CI behaviors positively affect respondent perceptions on CI contributions to innovation performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 139 firms in Brazil, and cluster analysis was used to identify groups with different CI adoption levels. The nonparametric Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test was used to verify differences in innovation performance at companies via manager perceptions on CI and innovation.

Findings

Data show that more CI behavior implementation was associated with better product and process innovation performance. Furthermore, companies with more mature CI behavior levels innovate more, which may reinforce CI investments.

Practical implications

Organizational managers focused on innovation should dedicate time to evaluating and developing CI behaviors, and maturing CI philosophies to improve performance. This study can contribute to the literature by offering insights for developing public policies, especially for emerging economies, or for companies seeking to become more competitive, since CI can foster and promote a culture of long-term innovation.

Originality/value

Despite the fact that a relationship between CI and operational performance has already been established, there is still a lack of research that identifies the impacts of CI behavior on innovation. Focusing on CI behavior is important because it can be fostered by various programs and improvement initiatives, highlighting paths for managerial practices and academia. This study was conducted for an emerging economy.

The Predictive Factors of New Technology Adoption, Workers' Well-Being and Absenteeism: The Case of a Public Maritime Company in Venice

The main goal of this research was to investigate the psychosocial aspects that influence the acceptance of innovative technology in maritime transport and its impact on employees’ work-related wellbeing and absenteeism. In particular, this study focused on a device that had been introduced to sailors working in water public transportation in Venice. The theoretical framework included two integrated models: the TAM model, concerning acceptance of the technology, and the JD-R model, related to workers’ well-being. A two-wave study was conducted; at T1, a self-report questionnaire was administered to 122 sailors. Four months after its first administration (T2), objective data related to days of absenteeism were collected. The study showed that the perceived ease of use and the usefulness of the device influenced the workers’ intentions to use the technology and their motivational processes of work engagement, which was also related to social support. Work engagement impacted on work satisfaction and predicted the level of absenteeism (measured at Time 2). The implementation of a new technology may fail if transportation companies do not consider psychosocial factors that assist in the acceptance of such technology and promote the involvement of workers in the technological system.

Patterns emerging from the TQM paradigm in relation to the 21st century complex context within TQM journal

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to explore the deployment of the total quality management (TQM) paradigm in the TQM Journal in relation to the context of the 21st century. The study builds on the theoretical framework of the four quality paradigms that together compose TQM. The four paradigms differ in their effectiveness based on the context in which they are used. In a complex context, one would expect the reflective and the emergence paradigm to flourish. The TQM Journal is one of the leading scientific journals on TQM. If the assumption that the reflective and emergent paradigm would flourish in a complex environment is correct, one will see that represented in the past five years of scientific research in that magazine.

Design/methodology/approach

The TQM Journal articles of the past five years from January 2016 till January 2021 have been chosen as the scope of an exploratory review. The author assessed the title and abstract of all articles based on the characteristics of the four quality paradigms, as described in the theoretical framework. If the title and abstract did not provide enough data to take the decision for the assessment, the whole article has been taken into account. The results have been collated, summarized and reported. Based on the results, the author explores the possible patterns.

Findings

In total, 283 articles from 2016 to 2021 (from Volume 28, Issue 1 to Volume 33, Issue 1) were included in this study. In total, 45 were read fully to be able to characterize the article. Most of the studies relate the tertiary (33.3%) and secondary (27.9%) sectors. Healthcare was the sector in 32 of the cases (11.3%). Most studies have been conducted in Europe (n = 82, 28.9%) and Asia (n = 58, 20.5%). Within Europe, Italy was the most prolific country with, respectively, 25 (30.8%) of the articles. The USA and Canada only had five articles in these five years (1.8%). Many articles did not specify the region. More than half of the articles (52.4%) worked with surveys, questionnaires or other methods to involve the customer in the research; 16 articles (5.6%) used experts in the field through expert panels and such to collect data from. In total, 107 articles (37.8%) did involve no other stakeholders than the researchers themselves. Eight studies (2.8%) used action research or co-design methodology to create optimal stakeholder participation. Based on the data, four patterns can be discovered: the context sensitivity of the articles, reflexivity, coping with uncertainty and co-creation.

Research limitations/implications

It is acknowledged that the articles in the study were published in just one scientific journal. One can expect that this will be represented in other journals on TQM. Still, it would be interesting to conduct a follow-up study in other journals on TQM and compare the results. The research is done by one subjective researcher.

Practical implications

Research on TQM should take the complexity of the context into account. For that purpose, researchers should focus more on the emergence paradigm within TQM.

Originality/value

This study is the first to investigate TQM as a holistic paradigm, including the empirical, reflective, reference and emergence paradigm in TQM research.

The effect of TQM practices on INGOs' staff work-related attitudes

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices on the work-related attitudes of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) staff, including job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and organisational commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper developed and tested 16 hypotheses on the relationship between TQM practices and work-related attitudes. Out of 295 targeted staff working for 59 INGOs operating in Jordan, 126 staff have responded to the research questionnaire. The collected dataset has been analysed using the structural equation modelling-partial least square (SEM-PLS) technique.

Findings

Analysis of the data revealed the significant positive effect of TQM practices. Beneficiary focus, empowerment-teamwork and continuous improvement impact 35% of job involvement. Meanwhile, beneficiary focus and empowerment-teamwork affect 34 and 47% of career satisfaction and organisational commitment, respectively. Significantly, empowerment-teamwork and continuous improvement determine 62% of job satisfaction. However, the low extent of training and education is challenging to enhance employees' positive emotions.

Practical implications

This research provides further evidence on the importance of TQM practices to the leaders of INGOs. Therefore, to orient their resources towards TQM implementation to enhance work-related attitudes, and in turn, the performance of interventions in this challenging sector.

Originality/value

This research extends the knowledge regarding certain TQM practices that naturally and variably empower job and career satisfaction, job involvement, and organisational commitment within the INGOs. Therefore, to confirm the validity of this research direction in a new uncovered sector, which has its own specificities.

Enhancing participation through organizational drivers

Purpose

This paper unifies previous research literature on employee participation in continuous improvement (CI) activities through the development and validation of a conceptual model. The purpose of this model is to illustrate how organizational drivers foster organizational and individual enablers which, in turn, strengthen employee participation in CI. The article also discusses the results and managerial implications.

Design/methodology/approach

Firstly, the article introduces the main variables affecting employee participation in CI, looking at the different possible relationships proposed in existing literature. In accordance with the Kaye and Anderson (1999) framework, these variables are categorized into organizational drivers, organizational and individual enablers and individual outcomes. Based on these categories, a model was put forward and empirically validated using data collected from three Spanish companies (n = 483) and using partial least squares structural equations modelling (PLS–SEM).

Findings

A model was put forward, proposing PIRK systems (power, information, rewards, knowledge) as the main organizational driver of employee participation in CI activities. PIRK impacts positively on social influence (organizational enabler), self-efficacy and job satisfaction (individual enablers). These enablers, together with employee intention of participating, help determine employee participation in CI activities.

Practical implications

Organizations with CI programmes should develop systems based on employee empowerment, information, rewards and knowledge in order to foster their self-efficacy and seek out a culture where social influence may help to improve job satisfaction. By suitably managing these organizational drivers, managers can help to further develop certain organizational and individual enablers responsible for fostering employee participation in CI activities.

Originality/value

By unifying different behavioural and CI-related frameworks, this paper carries out an in-depth study into the process of fostering employee participation as the key aspect in helping organizations sustain CI programmes. This paper shows the importance of managing PIRK organizational drivers as levers in the process of developing certain organizational and individual enablers, which are responsible for enhancing employee participation in CI.

Automating the process of method-time-measurement

Purpose

This work reports on a developing method time measurement system for measuring manufacturing and assembly processes automatically. This automatic system enables the production engineers and management to detect, process, and display concise and accurate information about the operations in real time.

Design/methodology/approach

This system is based on Internet of things technology and RFID-antenna. This methodology consists of seven main steps and one final optimization step. Mainly, the operator is equipped by RFID reader, and the work station tools and devices are provided by RFID tags. Responding the RFID tags to the reader will refer to the certain operations, the difference time between start and end of the operations will be collected immediately and calculated by the microprocessor of the system.

Findings

This automatic system is promising, considering the accurate time measurements and recommendations that obtained from the case study which includes measuring manual assembly operations to be followed in order to overcome the limitations which are not only technical but also managerial, legal and organizational.

Research limitations/implications

The acquired data about timing and duration of individual operations are anonymized to guarantee the compliance with respect to the privacy laws (GDPR and Italian work's laws).

Originality/value

This work presents a unique system to measure the time instead of traditional methods in the factories environment and satisfies the requirements to study the recommendations in order to overcome the challenges.

Key middle manager trustworthy behaviours that enhance operator participation in continuous improvement systems

Purpose

This paper aims to identify key middle manager trustworthy behaviours that encourage employees’ participation in continuous improvement activities in industrial contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

The list of behaviours has been developed in two different phases. First, the authors conducted two concept mappings with operators and middle managers and, subsequently, the authors combined and integrated both points of view. Second, the authors developed an expert panel with researchers, consultants and experienced practitioners of industrial management for debugging and reducing the results, presenting the final list of behaviours.

Findings

This work presents 55 different middle manager trustworthy behaviours divided into four different categories: human qualities; training and development; technical and managerial competencies; and team building.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to existing literature about sustainable continuous improvement systems highlighting the role of middle managers and proposes a set of specific middle manager trustworthy behaviours for increasing supervisors’ influence on operator participation.

Originality/value

After extracting the knowledge of different stakeholders, the list of behaviours identified can serve as a useful tool for recruiting, training, evaluating and developing a supervisors’ managerial style that enhances operator participation in continuous improvement activities.

Increasing Competitiveness through the Implementation of Lean Management in Healthcare

The main aim of this paper was two-fold: first, to design a participative methodology that facilitates lean management implementation in healthcare by adopting the action research approach; second, to illustrate the usefulness of this methodology by applying it to the sleep unit of a public hospital in Spain. This methodology proposes the implementation of lean management in its broadest sense: adopting both lean principles and some of its practical tools or practices in order to achieve competitive advantage. The complete service value chain was considered when introducing changes through lean management implementation. This implementation involved training and involving staff in the project (personnel pillar), detecting and analysing “waste” in value chain processes (processes pillar) and establishing control and measurement mechanisms in line with objectives (key performance indicators pillar) and putting in place improvement actions to achieve these objectives. The application of this methodology brought about an improvement in the management of patient flow in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and quality but also an internal transformation towards lean culture.

Leadership and quality management measurement models: an empirical study

PURPOSE

The purpose of this paper is to explore, confirm and verify leadership with regards to quality management measurement models. This research focused on identifying individual staff members' leadership attributes at the Thai National Institute of Health in relation to quality management.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

The research instrument used in this study was a modified questionnaire on self-leadership and quality management that was distributed to the institute's staff. Leadership and quality management construct variables were observed and measured through staff perceptions, attitudes, practices and existing facts at the institute. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to examine the data.

FINDINGS

The questionnaire had a 65 percent response rate. EFA revealed six factors from 27 questionnaire items and CFA was used to confirm the measurement models that were fitted to the data. The leadership attributes of staff members at the institute were statistically associated to and impacted on quality management by SEM analysis.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS

In-depth understanding of leadership and quality management could be done through a longitudinal study because the two factors would change over time. Even though this model is not a longitudinal study, it could help the institute facilitate and manage quality in practice through leadership.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

A cross-sectional study is used to examine the effect of leadership on quality management through factor analysis and SEM, which provided empirical evidence for future research. Leadership and quality management measurement models have statistically proven to be appropriately, technically and theoretically correct by design for observing variables used in the leadership measurement model that affects quality management.

The applications of Kaizen methods in project settings: applied study in Jordan

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the results of implementing the Kaizen approach in a caravan repairing project near the Jordanian–Syrian border in the Zaatari camp.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on the exploratory qualitative research approach. The data were collected through interviews and on-site observation with employees who were involved with the caravan maintenance project and have adequate knowledge and information about this project. In this process, a fishbone diagram, a quality control tool, is used to recognize and explain a causal-effect relationship under the selected Kaizen theme.

Findings

The findings suggest that the Kaizen approach was economical in terms of both money and time. Also, waste elimination can be achieved through a variety of tools and easily combined with the Kaizen approach. Implementing the Kaizen approach is an effective and reliable system that allows for the tackling of all types of inefficiencies in the caravan repairing project.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study will help policy makers and managers put together suitable and effective policies that will assist those firms in overcoming the demands of customers and competitors to deliver high quality, inexpensive products in less time through the application of the Kaizen approach. This, in turn, will lead to improved quality, efficiency and productivity in the most cost-effective way. However, these results should not be generalized since they are only confined to the context of caravan repairing project.

Originality/value

Very little research has been done that takes into account the contexts of developing countries. Additionally, most literature presents the use of Kaizen applications only in the manufacturing or production sectors. This study is the first to implement Kaizen as a continuous improvement technique in a caravan repairing project – a job shop industry different from the repetitive batch work environment that is usually associated with implementation of Kaizen. The current research should be of great interest to researchers, managers and professionals who wish to apply Kaizen approach as it is sustainable over time in similar projects.

Structure Please; Continuous Improvement and Employee Consequences in a Dynamic Task Environment

Whilst continuous improvement (CI) programs have had an enduring appeal for several decades, their sustainability has been a concern for almost as long. Sustaining a CI program requires permanent support of all its stakeholders, particularly of the most important ones—employees. Some authors argue that continuous improvement programs are beneficial for employee wellbeing, while others contest this. We contribute to the small empirical basis for such claims by presenting results from research among care workers in Flemish nursing homes. Questionnaires from 553 care workers in a nursing home applying continuous improvement and in a reference group of nine comparable homes were analyzed to study differences in job demands, job resources, burnout risk, and work engagement. In addition, we have drawn on interviews, site visits, and other qualitative data to assess the extent to which the differences found may be attributed to the CI program used. Overall, the care workers in the nursing home with the CI program evaluated their jobs as better than their colleagues in the reference group. These differences are at least partly caused by the continuous improvement program. We argue that the main effect is that over time, daily work processes become more structured. The work pressure decreases as work becomes less hectic.