The diffusion and popularity of Lean in Norway: An exploratory survey

Abstract Although commentators have noted that Lean currently is receiving a great deal of attention in Norway, little is known about how and to what extent Lean is used by Norwegian organizations. The overall purpose of this paper is to present the results of an explorative survey that attempts to map the diffusion and popularity of Lean in Norway. The results indicate that the adoption rate is still quite low, but that Lean is relatively more widely used in industries such as manufacturing and accounting, auditing and finance. Furthermore, the results indicate that Norwegian organizations are relatively recent adopters of Lean. Among users there is a general consensus that Lean has positive effects on organizational performance. At the same time, a wide range of implementation challenges are reported. These findings are discussed in relation to the extant literature on Lean.

[1]  J. A. Ingvaldsen,et al.  Lean thinking: outside-in, bottom-up? The paradox of contemporary soft lean and consultant-driven lean implementation , 2018 .

[2]  Erik Drotz,et al.  The rhetoric and reality of Lean: a multiple case study , 2016 .

[3]  Jos Benders,et al.  Lost in translation? The role of supervisors in lean production , 2016 .

[4]  D. Madsen,et al.  Social media and management fashions , 2015 .

[5]  K. Røvik,et al.  Lost in translation: a case-study of the travel of lean thinking in a hospital , 2015, BMC Health Services Research.

[6]  R. Hogg,et al.  Virologic suppression and mortality of patients who migrate for HIV care in the province of British Columbia, Canada, from 2003 to 2012: a retrospective cohort study , 2015, BMC Health Services Research.

[7]  Elin Larsson.  Management accounting fashion setting - Studies on supply-side actors in Sweden , 2015 .

[8]  Marcus Kallin,et al.  Implementering av Lean , 2015 .

[9]  Paula Hyde,et al.  Casting the lean spell: The promotion, dilution and erosion of lean management in the NHS , 2015 .

[10]  C. Wittrock.  Reembedding Lean: The Japanese Cultural and Religious Context of a World Changing Management Concept , 2015 .

[11]  Thomas Tøllefsen,et al.  Implementering av lean , 2014 .

[12]  D. Madsen,et al.  Doing Research on ‘Management Fashions’: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities , 2013 .

[13]  Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn,et al.  Evidence of lean: a review of international peer‐reviewed journal articles , 2013 .

[14]  Jörgen Winkel,et al.  Researching Lean: Methodological Implications of Loose Definitions , 2012 .

[15]  Vegar-André Aker Heien.  Lean : utbredelsen blant norske produksjonsbedrifter , 2012 .

[16]  J. Benders,et al.  Consultants And Organization Concepts , 2012 .

[17]  Nicole Jung,et al.  Consultants In The Management Fashion Arena , 2012 .

[18]  Matthias Kipping,et al.  The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting , 2012 .

[19]  A. Rossem,et al.  Managers’ awareness of fashionable management concepts: An empirical study , 2011 .

[20]  Stuart D. Green.  8. Lean Construction , 2011 .

[21]  K. Røvik.  From Fashion to Virus: An Alternative Theory of Organizations’ Handling of Management Ideas , 2011 .

[22]  Pamela Mazzocato,et al.  Lean thinking in healthcare: a realist review of the literature , 2010, Quality and Safety in Health Care.

[23]  Pervez N. Ghauri,et al.  Research Methods in Business Studies , 2010 .

[24]  Alexander T. Nicolai,et al.  What Wall Street Wants – Exploring the Role of Security Analysts in the Evolution and Spread of Management Concepts , 2010 .

[25]  Luciano Brandão de Souza,et al.  Trends and approaches in lean healthcare , 2009 .

[26]  J. Bicheno.  The New Lean Toolbox: Towards Fast, Flexible Flow , 2008 .

[27]  Matthias Holweg,et al.  The Lean Toolbox: The Essential Guide to Lean Transformation (4th ed.) , 2008 .

[28]  Tse-Hua Shih,et al.  Comparing Response Rates from Web and Mail Surveys: A Meta-Analysis , 2008 .

[29]  Jan P. Brosnahan.  Unleash the Power of Lean Accounting , 2008 .

[30]  Dag Näslund,et al.  Lean, six sigma and lean sigma: fads or real process improvement methods? , 2008, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[31]  Zoe J. Radnor,et al.  Editorial: Lean in Public Services—Panacea or Paradox? , 2008 .

[32]  N. Thawesaengskulthai,et al.  Fashion Setting in Quality Management and Continuous Improvement , 2008 .

[33]  Jurriaan J. Nijholt,et al.  Coevolution in Management Fashions , 2007 .

[34]  O. Jones.  Understanding the small business sector , 2007 .

[35]  Jacky Holloway,et al.  What Have We Learned? Themes from the Literature on Best-Practice Benchmarking , 2007 .

[36]  Matthias Holweg,et al.  The genealogy of lean production , 2007 .

[37]  D. Mehri.  The Darker Side of Lean: An Insider's Perspective on the Realities of the Toyota Production System , 2006 .

[38]  Timothy Morris,et al.  Translating Management Ideas , 2006 .

[39]  Peter C. Brewer,et al.  Lean accounting: what's it all about? , 2005 .

[40]  Stuart D. Green,et al.  Lean construction: arenas of enactment, models of diffusion and the meaning of ‘leanness’ , 2005 .

[41]  P. Hines,et al.  Learning to evolve: A review of contemporary lean thinking , 2004 .

[42]  Andrew Sturdy.  The Adoption of Management Ideas and Practices , 2004 .

[43]  Timothy B. Clark.  The Fashion of Management Fashion: a Surge Too Far? , 2004 .

[44]  Lars Engwall,et al.  Expansion of Management Knowledge: Carriers, Flows, and Sources , 2003 .

[45]  Kevin N. Laland,et al.  Learning to evolve , 2003, Nature.

[46]  Mary Poppendieck,et al.  Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit , 2003 .

[47]  Sunny Marche,et al.  The Expansion of Management Knowledge: Carriers, Flows, and Sources , 2003 .

[48]  Chester S. Spell.  Management Fashions , 2001 .

[49]  Teemu Malmi,et al.  BALANCED SCORECARDS IN FINNISH COMPANIES: A RESEARCH NOTE , 2001 .

[50]  J. Benders,et al.  What's in a Fashion? Interpretative Viability and Management Fashions , 2001 .

[51]  Russel L. Thompson,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Response Rates in Web- or Internet-Based Surveys , 2000 .

[52]  G. Reid,et al.  Editorial. Problems, challenges and opportunities: the small business as a setting for management accounting research , 2000 .

[53]  R. Bos.  Fashion and Utopia in Management Thinking , 2000 .

[54]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  What Bandwagons Bring: Effects of Popular Management Techniques on Corporate Performance, Reputation, and CEO Pay , 2000 .

[55]  J. Benders,et al.  Leaning on lean: the reception of a management fashion in Germany , 2000 .

[56]  John Bicheno,et al.  The Lean Toolbox , 1999 .

[57]  S. Spear,et al.  Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System , 1999 .

[58]  U. Sekaran.  Research Methods for Business , 1999 .

[59]  Robin Fincham,et al.  The consultants' offensive: reengineering - from fad to technique , 1999 .

[60]  Harry Scarbrough,et al.  Forget Japan: the very British response to lean production , 1998 .

[61]  Keith Grint,et al.  TQM, BPR, JIT, BSCs and TLAs: managerial waves or drownings? , 1997 .

[62]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  Becoming lean : inside stories of U.S. manufacturers , 1997 .

[63]  A. Kieser.  Rhetoric and Myth in Management Fashion , 1997 .

[64]  Jos Benders,et al.  Leaving Lean? Recent Changes in the Production Organization of some Japanese Car Plants , 1996 .

[65]  Lowell Turner.  Book Review: International and Comparative: Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in the Age of Flexibility , 1995 .

[66]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Institutional conditions for diffusion , 1993 .

[67]  Yasuhiro Monden,et al.  Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time , 1993 .

[68]  Kenneth K. Humphreys,et al.  Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time, 4th Edition , 1993 .

[69]  Eric Abrahamson.  Managerial Fads and Fashions: The Diffusion and Rejection of Innovations , 1991 .

[70]  Brigitte Maier,et al.  Translating Organizational Change , 2016 .

[71]  Maria Svoren,et al.  Lean i tjenesteytende virksomhet , 2016 .

[72]  Philipp Nadel.  The Machine That Changed The World , 2016 .

[73]  Arild Aspøy.  Lean tar over styringen , 2014 .

[74]  Dag Øivind Madsen.  How do managers encounter fashionable management concepts? A study of balanced scorecard adopters in Scandinavia , 2014 .

[75]  Elin Larsson.  Managementmoden och popularitetssvängningar – En studie av Lean-konceptet i svensk populärpress 1990-2008 , 2012 .

[76]  Ingvild Schie,et al.  Lean i norske kommuner : en studie om spredning av lean som styringsverktøy, og endringer i organisasjonen som en følge av implementeringen , 2012 .

[77]  Jostein Langstrand,et al.  Exploring organizational translation : A case study of changes toward Lean Production , 2012 .

[78]  Magne Mollekleiv Dolva.  Implementering av lean i norske kommuner : har norske kommuner implementert lean, eller vurderer de å implementere det? , 2011 .

[79]  W. R. Seed,et al.  Lean construction. , 2010, HERD.

[80]  Jørn Erik Larsen.  Lønnsomheten av lean i Norge : fører praktisering av lean til forbedret lønnsomhet blant norske forretningsbanker? , 2009 .

[81]  Bernard J. Jansen,et al.  E-survey methodology , 2007 .

[82]  Kressel,et al.  Competing for the Future , 2007 .

[83]  John Drew,et al.  Applying lean production to the public sector , 2006 .

[84]  Sanjay Bhasin,et al.  Lean viewed as a philosophy , 2006 .

[85]  Walter W. Powell,et al.  Close encounters: the circulation and reception of managerial practices in the San Francisco Bay area nonprofit community , 2005 .

[86]  Eric Abrahamson,et al.  Avoiding Repetitive Change Syndrome , 2004 .

[87]  F. Frost,et al.  The use of strategic tools by small and medium-sized enterprises: an Australasian study , 2003 .

[88]  H. S. Heusinkveld,et al.  Surges and Sediments: Organization concepts between Transience and continuity , 2003 .

[89]  John N. Pearson,et al.  Jit Manufacturing: a Survey of Implementations in Small and Large U.S. Manufacturers , 1999 .

[90]  Stuart D. Green.  The dark side of lean construction: exploitation and ideology , 1999 .

[91]  J. Womack,et al.  Learning to see : value stream mapping to create value and eliminate muda , 1999 .

[92]  Greg Howell,et al.  Implementing Lean Construction: Stabilizing Work Flow , 1997 .

[93]  K. Sisson.  Personnel management : a comprehensive guide to theory and practice in Britain , 1994 .

[94]  Mark Gould,et al.  Nuts and bolts for the social sciences , 1991 .

[95]  門田 安弘,et al.  Toyota production system : practical approach to production management , 1983 .

[96]  W. Powell,et al.  THE IRON CAGE REVISITED: , 1983, The New Economic Sociology.