Continuous improvement: Exploring alternative organizational designs

Continuous improvement (CI) is an organizational innovation and design principles rooted in total quality management paradigm. CI mechanisms and organizational designs developed in one firm are usually too complex to be transferred or adopted as is by another organization. We illustrate that successful CI efforts can be organized in various ways in different industry environments and cultural context. A set of design principles is introduced. We suggest that product process standardization and power distance are the key contextual variables influencing the choice of organizational design of continuous improvement.

[1]  T. Thrall.  Work redesign. , 2003, Hospitals & health networks.

[2]  Rhonda K. Reger,et al.  REFRAMING THE ORGANIZATION: WHY IMPLEMENTING TOTAL QUALITY IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE , 1994 .

[3]  石川 馨.  QC circle Koryo : general principles of the QC circle , 1989 .

[4]  Bert Spector,et al.  Beyond TQM Programmes , 1994 .

[5]  James D. Westphal,et al.  Customization or Conformity? An Institutional and Network Perspective on the Content and Consequences of TQM Adoption , 1997 .

[6]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation , 1996 .

[7]  J. Dean,et al.  MANAGEMENT THEORY AND TOTAL QUALITY: IMPROVING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE THROUGH THEORY DEVELOPMENT , 1994 .

[8]  R. Schonberger.  Japanese manufacturing techniques : nine hidden lessons simplicity , 1982 .

[9]  Enid Mumford,et al.  Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution , 1995 .

[10]  A R Forrest,et al.  Quality control. , 1978, British medical journal.

[11]  Noel M. Tichy,et al.  Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will , 1992 .

[12]  W. J. Miller,et al.  A working definition for total quality management (TQM) researchers , 1996 .

[13]  Cindelyn Eberts,et al.  The Myths of Japanese Quality , 1995 .

[14]  Clive Holtham,et al.  The Business Value of Computers , 1991, J. Inf. Technol..

[15]  P. Strassmann.  The business value of computers , 1990 .

[16]  Thomas Y. Choi,et al.  Conceptualizing continuous improvement: Implications for organizational change , 1995 .

[17]  Abraham B. Shani,et al.  Quality, Strategy and Structural Configuration , 1994 .

[18]  Paul Lillrank,et al.  The Transfer of Management Innovations from Japan , 1995 .

[19]  Abraham B. Shani,et al.  Organizational learning mechanisms and continuous improvement , 1997 .

[20]  M. Gudim,et al.  Parallel Learning Structures: Increasing Innovation in Bureaucracies , 1992 .

[21]  T. C. Powell.  Total Quality Management as Competitive Advantage , 1995 .

[22]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  Bringing Japanese Continuous Improvement Approaches to U.S. Manufacturing: The Roles of Process Orientation and Communications* , 1995 .

[23]  T. Gilmore,et al.  The boundaryless organization. , 1994, The Healthcare Forum journal.

[24]  William E. Cole,et al.  The Economics of Total Quality Management: Clashing Paradigms in the Global Market , 1995 .

[25]  K. Lewin.  Field theory in social science , 1951 .

[26]  Thomas Y. Choi,et al.  Top managers and TQM success: One more look after all these years , 1997 .

[27]  J. Hackman,et al.  Total Quality Management: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues , 1995 .

[28]  Computer Staff,et al.  The Machine That Changed the World , 1992 .

[29]  Robert E. Cole,et al.  The death and life of the American quality movement , 1995 .

[30]  Åke Sandberg.  Enriching Production: Perspectives on Volvo's Uddevalla plant as an alternative to lean production , 1995 .