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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organisational climate in readiness for change (RFC) with particular focus on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and to develop and operationalise an instrument to measure organisational climate to determine the organisational readiness of the Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) to progress to the next stage of the LSS implementation lifecycle.

A case study outlining the KIM journey to LSS is described. A quantitative survey was developed based on the ten organisational climate dimensions discovered by Ekvall (1983) and redefined by Lauer (1994). This was then used to measure the climate of the case study organisation. Data were analysed to determine individual perceptions of the climate dimensions within KIM. The average score for each dimension was used to determine overall organisational performance and hence RFC.

The generally positive scores across each dimension of the survey indicate that the KIM climate is ready for the next stage of its LSS implementation lifecycle although there may be some isolated pockets (individuals or groups) of resistance to change. However, the range of scores on each dimension indicates that there is disagreement within the survey group about the overall organisational climate.

The response rate to the climate survey questionnaire was only two-thirds of the total staff at KIM Headquarters and approximately one-fifth of all staff. The views of non-respondents are therefore not known and this may bias the results.

Since climate influences RFC it is essential that an organisation can measure it to ensure its environment is conducive to the implementation of change generally and LSS particularly. The developed questionnaire is easy to use, easy to analyse and easy to interpret making it an ideal climate measurement instrument.

Previous papers on LSS concentrate on organisational culture rather that climate as a success factor for LSS implementation. This paper addresses that omission.

This paper reports the results of a pilot study on the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in East African service and manufacturing organizations. The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical success factors for implementation of such a strategy as well as any barriers. A further aim was to determine the knowledge, usage and usefulness of LSS tools and techniques within those organizations.

A quantitative approach was taken utilizing a survey questionnaire which was sent to a sample of organization employees who had attended Yellow, Green or Black Belt LSS training courses organized by the Kenya Institute of Management in Nairobi. Employees attending such courses came from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Results indicate that the most useful tools are most of the original seven tools of quality improvement proposed by Ishikawa over 50 years ago and the most important factor for successful implementation of LSS is management involvement and participation.

The main limitation is that this is a pilot study so to confirm the findings a full survey of East African organization needs to be undertaken.

The findings have implications for trainers, consultants and practitioners with regards to the implementation of LSS within organizations as well as the focus of the content of LSS training courses.

This paper reports the first study on the implementation of LSS in East Africa and will be of value to practitioners, trainers, consultants and researchers of LSS in East Africa and beyond.

Although the debate about the interplay between quality management and organizational culture is long established, extant knowledge about their link is not consistent. This article attempts to fill such a gap by integrating current perspectives and insights through a literature review.

A domain-based literature review has been conducted, which followed the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews. The knowledge core consisted of 76 items, which were analysed through bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis. An interpretive approach was taken to articulate the study findings.

The current scholarly debate unfolds through four research streams, which emphasize the need for joint optimizing quality management and organizational culture embracing a longitudinal perspective. Similarly, the theoretical roots inspiring reviewed contributions are distributed in four clusters, which rely on the assumption that organizational excellence derives from the harmonization of quality management and organizational culture.

Quality management necessitates a supportive organizational culture to set the ground for excellence. At the same time, it modifies the inner traits of the organizational culture. Such cultural changes should be carefully handled to ensure a dependable quality orientation. Achieving organizational excellence involves mastering the interplay between quality management and organizational culture.

This article delivers an unprecedented systematization of the scientific literature. It identifies the main research streams through which the debate on quality management and culture evolves, shedding light on the main conceptual roots inspiring recent scholarly advancements. Alongside overcoming the fragmentation of the extant debate, this review enables the envisioning of an agenda for further developments.

Lean Six Sigma in public and private healthcare organisations has received considerable attention over the last decade. Nevertheless, such process improvement methodologies are not generalizable, and their effective implementation relies on contextual variables. The purpose of this study is to explore the readiness of Italian hospitals for Lean Six Sigma and Quality Performance Improvement (LSS&QPI), with a focus on gender differences.

A survey comprising 441 healthcare professionals from public and private hospitals was conducted. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine the mean scores on the LSS&QPI dimensions based on hospital type, gender and their interaction.

The results showed that public healthcare professional are more aware of quality performance improvement initiatives than private healthcare professionals. Moreover, gender differences emerged according to the type of hospital, with higher awareness for men than women in public hospitals, whereas for private hospitals the opposite was true.

This study contributes to the Lean Six Sigma literature by focusing on the holistic assessment of LSS&QPI implementation.

This study informs healthcare managers about the revolution within healthcare organisations, especially public ones. Healthcare managers should spend time understanding Lean Six Sigma as a strategic orientation to promote the “lean hospital”, improving processes and fostering patient-centredness.

This is a preliminary study focussing on analysing inter-relationship between perceived importance of soft readiness factors such as gender dynamics as a missing jigsaw in the current literature. In addition, the research advances a holistic assessment of LSS&QPI, which sets it apart from the studies on single initiatives that have been documented to date.

This paper aims to enhance the small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) ability to develop resilience in the face of any turbulences, addressing the question on how these organizations can maintain business continuity when faced with a critical event.

A mediated regression analysis is conducted to investigate the relationships among big data analytics (BDA) capabilities, coinnovation (CI) and organizational resilience (OR) with reference to 192 big data SMEs in Europe.

Research reveals that the BDA capability and CI are positively associated with OR. Moreover, this study discovers the mediating impact of CI on the relationship between BDA capability and OR.

This paper provides important implications for considering CI as a viable strategy especially in a time of crisis and shows how SMEs are more able to recognize business opportunities. The microfoundations of the resilience building capacity of SMEs are also identified. These microfoundations become recommendations for practitioners to enhance SMEs’ responsiveness in light of coronavirus-related crises.

THE enterprise of two London newspapers, the Tribune (for the second time) and the Daily Chronicle, in organizing exhibitions of books affords a convenient excuse for once again bringing forward proposals for a more permanent exhibition. On many occasions during the past twenty years the writer has made suggestions for the establishment of a central book bazaar, to which every kind of book‐buyer could resort in order to see and handle the latest literature on every subject. An experiment on wrong lines was made by the Library Bureau about fifteen years ago, but here, as in the exhibitions above mentioned, the arrangement was radically bad. Visiting the Daily Chronicle show in company with other librarians, and taking careful note of the planning, one was struck by the inutility of having the books arranged by publishers and not by subjects. Not one visitor in a hundred cares twopence whether books on electricity, biography, history, travel, or even fairy tales, are issued by Longmans, Heinemann, Macmillan, Dent or any other firm. What everyone wants to see is all the recent and latest books on definite subjects collected together in one place. The arrangements at the Chronicle and Tribune shows are just a jumble of old and new books placed in show‐cases by publishers' names, similar to the abortive exhibition held years ago in Bloomsbury Street. What the book‐buyer wants is not a miscellaneous assemblage of books of all periods, from 1877 to date, arranged in an artistic show‐case and placed in charge of a polite youth who only knows his own books—and not too much about them—but a properly classified and arranged collection of the newest books only, which could be expounded by a few experts versed in literature and bibliography. What is the use of salesmen in an exhibition where books are not sold outright? If these exhibitions were strictly limited to the newest books only, there would be much less need for salesmen to be retained as amateur detectives. Another decided blemish on such an exhibition is the absence of a general catalogue. Imagine any exhibition on business lines in which visitors are expected to cart away a load of catalogues issued separately by the various exhibitors and all on entirely different plans of arrangement! The British publisher in nearly everything he does is one of the most hopeless Conservatives in existence. He will not try anything which has not been done by his grandfather or someone even more remote, so that publishing methods remain crystallized almost on eighteenth century lines. The proposal about to be made is perhaps far too revolutionary for the careful consideration of present‐day publishers, but it is made in the sincere hope that it may one day be realized. It has been made before without any definite details, but its general lines have been discussed among librarians for years past.