What are the values and behaviors of effective lean leaders (original) (raw)
Related papers
2008
Although many firms have adopted Lean, values and behaviors for effectively sustaining Lean lack specification. Our research aimed to capture values and behaviors of highly effective Dutch middle managers in Lean firms. We had nineteen consultants of a Dutch consulting firm specialized in Lean identify Lean values and behaviors as well as names of highly effective Lean middle managers. We then interviewed, surveyed these so-selected six managers and their related managers, and video-observed four of them. As their key values they consider ‘honesty’ and ‘participation/teamwork.’ Their self-reported main behaviors are ‘actively listening to a person’s concerns’ and ‘building trust.’ From the objectively videoanalysed regular meetings we coded indeed mainly: ‘active listening.’ Clearly, our study addresses a new relevant organization-behavioral niche.
Values and behaviors of effective lean managers: Mixed-methods exploratory research
European Management Journal, 2017
Lean Management is a managerial approach focused on enhancing customer value through the elimination of non-value adding steps from work processes. Lean Management is also enjoying a resurgence, largely because its 'do more with less' philosophy is particularly well-suited for the austere conditions of a 'Great Recession' recovery. Despite this resurgence with practitioners, however, academic research of Lean Management, in particular research on the leadership of lean initiatives, remains limited. In this study, we identify a constellation of lean values and behaviors of effective lean managers, based on extant research and the views of expert practitioners, and a field study of lean managers. In the first of two empirical studies, we produce an initial list of values and behaviors, derived from both the lean and leadership literature, and from three Delphi rounds with 19 expert lean practitioners. In study 2, we corroborate and refine the list with a sample of effective lean middle managers, through 18 interviews; a survey (N ¼ 43); and fine-grained video-analyses of their in situ behaviors during meetings with subordinates. The values identified include: honesty, candor, participation and teamwork, and continuous improvementdall indicative of self-transcendence and openness to change. Regarding behaviors, we find that the effective lean middle managers of our sample, compared to other middle managers, engage significantly more in positive relations-oriented "active listening" and "agreeing" behaviors, and significantly less in "task monitoring" and counterproductive work behaviors (such as "providing negative feedback" and "defending one's own position"). To conclude, we put forward five new propositions intended to guide future research and a more successful practice of 'lean leadership.'
Governing Highly Performing Lean Team Behaviors: A Mixed-Methods Longitudinal Study
Proceedings - Academy of Management, 2015
This inductive study focuses on behavioral and contextual predictors of sustainable lean team performance. Five lean work-floor teams were studied over three years, using objective performance data; surveys; (video-)observation; and retrospective interviews. We reveal a cascading effect: Top-and team-leader support for lean affects effective team behaviors. 10.5465/AMBPP.2015.127 Proposition 2. High lean team performance is sustained, in part, by high team leader support, which is provided through a leader's behavioral repertoire consisting of active listening, information sharing, providing individual consideration, and little taskmonitoring and self-defending. Lean teams that experience both high top-and team-leader support engage in leader-type behavioral dynamics such as frequent task performance monitoring, providing backup, and process innovating; the highest-performing Truck team scored high on process innovating. Clearly, in lean work teams "management information" is turned into "shared information" through resources such as visual performance dashboards (Poksinska et al., 2013). This highly cooperative or non-competitive team dynamic also enables teams to innovate and continuously improve their own processes which ignites further team performance improvement (Bicheno & Holweg, 2009; Poksinska et al., 2013). And as team members experience lean's benefits, the pull for continuous improvement emerges (Keating et al., 1999). In the two lowest-performing teams, however, members' task monitoring and associated providing of backup decreased, and process innovating was less prevalent. Hence, our third proposition is: Proposition 3. Supportive top-and team-level leader behaviors enable sustained lean team performance through the emergence of cooperative team dynamics, consisting of members who monitor their own and co-workers' tasks, so that they are able to provide backup, share (management) information, and innovate their work processes.
The Chronological studies of lean and leadership for improvement of organizational performance
Journal of Public Value and Administration Insights
The objective of this review is to identify the most effective characteristics of leaders to enable lean implementation, and helps the organization to improve or change their already implemented strategies to enhance performance through lean. The litreture aim to measure the leadership style for implementation of lean contributes towards building behaviors of leaders that supports the change process like lean. The methodology contains peer reviewed journal, which uncovered 67 reviewed articles from 2003-2017. The conclusion after review explore that senior management and human resources must support and operationalized such opportunity of development. The development is purposed to enable lean implementation. The proper implementation of leadership behaviors improved the success of lean system and validates to achieve high sustainability in performance.
The Role of Leadership in Implementing Lean Manufacturing
Procedia CIRP, 2017
It is widely accepted that for the successful implementation of lean manufacturing, the senior management commitment is of great importance. However, the lean journey is usually a long one, and eventually management commitment creeps. Furthermore, the involvement of employees in daily improvements is also critical for the success of implementation. Lean leadership can be considered as a way of sustaining and improving the employee performance in lean production systems. In the present study, a thorough literature review is presented focusing in reviewing the principles of lean leadership and the practices that can lead in improving the employee performance. Furthermore, the characteristics and qualities of lean leader are discussed.
Leadership and the Social Psychology of Lean Enterprise
2017
Lean enterprise is the Toyota Production System applied not only in the production department but inside all organizational departments (finance, marketing, etc.). It focuses on continuously adding value to processes while improving efficiency and inputs management. No organization exists that has fully mastered the Lean ideology. Many like Toyota have applied it for decades and seen results, while others have seen none and abandon the chase. It is important to understand that leaders are an essential instrument for an effective and successful Lean implementation. Further, there are variables that affect a leader’s behavior which in turn will have an impact on the organizational performance. In other words, different leadership styles will result in desirable or undesirable organizational outcomes. It is important for organizations striving for Lean improvements to have the most effective leadership in place. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to is to explore the variables interact...
Leader Values, Followers' Information Sharing, and Team Effectiveness: Advancing Lean Team Cultures
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014
When work teams fail to sustain lean management methods, people frequently blame the "organizational culture." Empirical tests of lean cultural content are nevertheless scarce. This study examined a lean team effectiveness model, comprising of relevant parts of Schwartz's work-value theory as well as Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, and Jundt's (2005) IMOI model. Two work value clusters of lean team leaders and their followers' information sharing behavior are hypothesized to explain lean team effectiveness. Based on valid survey scales, we surveyed team leaders and members (N = 429) and tested the hypotheses with the aggregated dataset; this comprised of 25 lean teams involved in commercial and public services and in manufacturing. We were able to remove considerable common source-bias. As expected, 1) lean team effectiveness was significantly linked to high scores on leader self-transcendence values and low scores on leader conservation values; 2) followers in effective lean teams were significantly more engaged in information sharing than those in the less effective teams; and 3) a partial mediation effect of follower information sharing (and thus followers' "power of words") was established between leaders' self-transcendence values and lean team effectiveness. Practical recommendations pertaining to value-based selection of lean team leaders, and their presumed role-modeling of information sharing are given; their teams clearly thrive if their members are enabled to share information. In order to further uncover the precise content of (effective) lean team cultures, and how that may differ from similar non-lean teams, more comparative lean team effectiveness research is proposed.
Building a Lean Culture: Engaging the Value Stream
Proc. 27th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), 2019
This paper presents an analysis of a Lean Leadership (LL) training program initiated by the company about three years ago. The program's main goal is to disseminate Lean throughout the company, which has been using Lean principles in its projects for about twenty years. So far, the LL program has reached over four hundred participants. Over the last year, the program included participants from the company's extended value stream. Participants include project teams and the company's strategic partners for prefabrication, equipment rental, and VDC/Project Controls support services. As part of the program, authors one and two visited participants to understand how they are applying lean leadership principles. This paper, the third in the series of building a Lean culture, shares success stories on how organizations in the company's value stream applied LL knowledge to their business including value stream mapping, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), go and see, and effective meetings. It also presents how these teams will continue their LL training to further build a Lean culture which the company can learn from its strategic partners while driving home a common purpose.
Barriers to lean implementation: perceptions of top managers, middle managers and workers
For years, companies have tried to figure out how to consistently organize their businesses for improving quality and efficiency, and at the same time reduce costs and lead times. Lean principles and techniques have become a benchmark for Western manufacturing companies, founded on the success of the Toyota Production System. Despite its popularity, many companies still struggle to achieve a successful and lasting lean implementation. Existing research indicate that both organizational and technical barriers are important, such as lack of management support and commitment, poor involvement of employees, and excessive confidence in lean tools and practices. A gap in current research is the limited focus on identifying how different groups at different hierarchical levels in an organization perceive barriers to lean implementation. Unless the opinions of different groups are taken into account, efforts to overcome the barriers may be misguided. This paper reports on a two-year in-depth single case study of barriers to lean implementation, aiming at understanding why the company only to a certain extent has succeeded with their lean activities. Based on 28 interviews and observations, results indicate that the different groups at different hierarchical levels experience different types of barriers. The article will provide an important contribution to how companies can organize lean implementation processes better for future success, which should be relevant to both academia and industry.
A Way Forward to Attain Lean Manufacturing Status through Transformational Leadership
2016
Lean system is among the most extensively implemented business strategy, for quality and cost effectiveness. With roots in 1960’s Toyota Production System (TPS) and Just-In-Time (JIT), Lean focuses on customer satisfaction. The goal is to produce exactly what customer wants, when and in what amount. For achieving the goal, principles like waste elimination, empowered employees and continuous improvement are employed. Transformational leaders activate higher-order needs in followers. Research by Krishnan [13] suggests that superior performance is possible only through stimulating and motivating followers to higher levels of performance through transformational leadership. Superior performance is possible only by transforming followers’ values, attitudes, and motives from a lower to a higher plane of arousal and maturity. The intention throughout this research is how to gain the lean status through transformational leaders. Results of this research shows that transformational leaders ...