The Importance of Leadership in Driving a Strategic Lean Six Sigma Management

Abstract Lean Six Sigma has become a business model, a symbol of excellence, with the goal of eliminating waste and reducing the defects and variations in organization's processes. Over the years, the excellence model has also demonstrated his significant importance and power in changing organization culture and employee vision over the changes which occur within organization. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that organizations can obtain individual and organizational performance by using well trained leaders focused on continuous improvement which use Lean Six Sigma in driving employee synergy. The findings of this paper revealed the key factors needed to create a special framework which can lead the organization to business excellence through personnel improvement. The results obtained from 28 respondent organizations highlighted that: there is a synergy between Lean Six Sigma, organization's objectives and performance measurement; the leader is an efficient communicator which plays a prominent role in employee's support and motivation; employee motivation increases during the implementation of Lean Six Sigma projects. The originality of the paper consists in linking leadership with Lean Six Sigma vision and continuous improvement tools to drive employee satisfaction and motivation. This approach can be used by any organization and has the purpose to develop strategic business objectives and to highlight the importance of personal improvement. The data obtained from the questionnaire are analyzed through the SPSS statistical package software.