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CM J37 - Lean Service: a Change Management Perspective*"CLOSED FOR FURTHER ENROLMENT"

Faculty
Malek Maalouf
Course Coordinator
Malek Maalouf
Prerequisite/progression of the course
Basic knowledge about Lean and/or reading of the first 3 chapters of the following book:
Womack, J., Jones, D.T. and Ross, D. (1990), The Machine That Changed the World, Rawson Associates, New York, NY.
Course content, structure and teaching
The implementation of Lean is considered by many authors to be a radical change in the organizations. Despite attempts, many companies have not been able to capture or sustain the benefits of a lean transformation. From the literature, it is clear that Lean represents a fundamental change and that in order to succeed the companies should be willing to perform the transformation needed to implement and sustain this philosophy within the organization. The success of lean implementation depends on achieving a change in the core values of the company. Many authors attribute the failure in achieving the results expected from lean implementation to focus on implementing the technical tools and neglecting the cultural and strategic side of lean.
In this course I will introduce a known change management model in order to approach the implementation of lean in companies from the Service sector (Financial, Healthcare and Public Sector). I will use also cases of Service companies who have implemented or trying to implement lean and link them to the content and theories discussed in the class.
The course is composed of lectures supported by cases and reading of cited articles.
The course starts with a presentation of Lean Tools (the hard part of lean) and Lean Philosophy (the soft part of lean). In the following lecture the change management model is presented with its main components: Environment, Leadership, Culture, Mission & Strategy and Performance. Each of the following lectures is dedicated to discuss one of these components within the model. The idea is to analyze and understand how each of these complements and the interplay among them will impact the implementation of lean.
After the course, the student will be able to understand the relation of areas and concepts like culture and Leadership to the success of the implementation of lean.
The course's development of personal competences
  • The students will practice the reading of articles from high ranking journals.
  • The students will improve the ability to extract relevant information and insights from an article.
  • The students will also present and discuss findings and comments in groups.
Learning Objectives
In order to achieve the grade 12 at the exam, the students must be able to understand and justify how culture, leadership and other factors of the business impact lean implementation in a specific situation presented in the exam. The challenge will be the development of the ability to choose the best approach and use of the relevant theories presented in the class in order to explain the specific case.
Type of examination, exam aids and assessment
Individual project exam/home assignment
Recommended literature
The following articles are basic reading and will be referred to during the course:
  • Hines, P. et al. (2004), Learning to evolve: A review of contemporary lean thinking, International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 24, N0. 10, 2004 pp. 994-1011.
  • Holweg M. (2007), The genealogy of lean production, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 25, Issue 2,March 2007, P. 420-437.
  • Burke W. W., Litwin G. H., (1992), “A Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change”, Journal of Management, Vol. 18, No. 3, 523-545.
  • Selected chapters from the following 3 books will also be recommended during the course before the respective lectures:
1- Womack, J., Jones, D.T. and Ross, D. (1990), The Machine that Changed the World, Rawson Associates, New York, NY.
2- Womack, J. and Jones, D. (2003), Lean Thinking, Simon & Schuster, London.
3- George, M. (2003), Lean Six Sigma for service: How to use Lean speed and Six Sigma quality to improve services and transactions, McGraw Hill (2003), USA
Extra Reading:
According to the discussed theme, I will be referring to some of the following articles:
Culture articles:
  • Detert, J.R. et al. (2000), A Framework for Linking Culture and Improvement Initiatives in Organizations, Academy of Management review, 2000, Vol. 25, No. 4, 850-863.
  • Zeitz, G. et al (1997), An Employee Survey Measuring Total Quality Management Practices and Cultures, Group & Organization Management, Vol. 22, No. 4, December 1997, 414-444.
Change articles:
  • Almaraz, J (1994), Quality Management and the Process of Change, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 7, no. 2, 1994, pp. 6-14
  • Pettigrew, A. M. (1987), Context and action in the transformation of the firms. Journal of Management Studies, 24: 649-670.
  • Walker, H.J. et al, (2007), Factors Influencing Organizational Change Efforts, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20, No. 6, 2007, pp. 761-773
Leadership articles
  • Eisenbach R. et al (1999), Transformational Leadership in the context of organizational change, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1999, pp. 80-88.
  • Lakshman, C. (2006), A Theory of Leadership for Quality: Lessons from TQM for Leadership Theory, Total Quality Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, 41-60, January 2006.
Quality Management articles
  • Andersson, J.C. et al (1994), A theory of Quality Management Underlying the Deming Management Method, Academy of Management Review, 1994, Vol. 19, No. 3, 472-509.
  • Dean, J.W. & Bowen, D. (1994), Management Theory and Total Quality: Improving Research and Practice through Theory development, Academy of Management review, 1994, Vol. 19, No. 3, 392-418.
  • Hackman, J.R. & Wageman, R (1995), Total Quality Management: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues, Administrative Science Quarterly, 40 (1995): 309-342
Mission, Strategy and Environment articles
  • Prescott, J.E. (1986), Environments as Moderators of the Relationship between Strategy and Performance, Academy of Management Journal, 1986, Vol. 29, No. 2, 329-346.
  • Pearce II, J & David F. (1987), Corporate Mission Statements: The Bottom Line, Academy of Management Executive, 1987, Vol.1 No. 2, pp. 109-116.

Last updated by The Electives Office 18/08/2010