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Abstract
Lean and Lean Six Sigma business transformation initiatives have become a business imperative for many organizations in just about every industry domain. While many companies are attempting to implement Lean methodologies, the vast majority of these organizations fail to meet their business transformation objectives and/or fail to sustain their business transformation gains. Research has shown that the most common reasons that these efforts fail to achieve or sustain their improvement results are 1) the lack of leadership support, and 2) the lack of focus on the organizational culture. This research studies both the role of the leadership team in enabling and sustaining a successful Lean transformation initiative and the importance of the organizational culture in a Lean transformation. A methodology for sustaining a successful Lean Transformation was developed by the IBM Center for Learning and Development, which focuses on developing transformational leadership skills in an organization's senior management team who enables both operational improvement and cultural transformation.
Keywords
Lean transformation, transformational leadership, organizational culture, high-performing organization
1. Introduction to Research
Business Transformation is a change management strategy which has as its goal the closer alignment of the organization's People, Process and Technology initiatives with its business strategy and vision. This close alignment helps support and innovate new business strategies, and it is critical for sustaining the business transformation results. Transformation and change is a critical issue for most organizations. In a survey of enterprise level companies [1] released by Capgemini Consulting in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit, European businesses have launched on average seven major transformation initiatives in the past three years. In this survey, 86% of the respondents feel that managing their business transformation efforts is now an integral part of their management responsibilities, while only 30% believe these initiatives will be successful. This research shows that the failure rate of change initiatives occur at around 70-80%, and indicates that many organizations are struggling to achieve their business transformation objectives. Today's competitive business environment requires significant process improvement efforts are applied to transform business operations. The truly successful business transformation initiative requires strong leadership to realize and sustain their business transformation goals [2].
In their research "Adaptive Corporate Culture: Key to Financial Performance" [3], John Kotter and James Heskett find that...