Big Theories in Small Places: Lean/Six Sigma in the Small to Medium Size Nonprofit – Can they work?

There is an increasing emphasis by donors and the public towards accountability and demonstration of results in the nonprofit sector. Quantitative measures are increasingly expected from donors of the nonprofit organization, whether individuals or larger foundations, to demonstrate value and generate further support. As such, there have been many efforts to introduce practices of private sector management theory, specifically performance management theories, to the non-profit sector. Enterprise Performance Management, Business Process Management, Total Quality Management, Balanced Scorecard, and other programs of this type are all the trend to enable the more agile, responsive, effective organization. These initiatives have however focused on the larger organizations that pattern after private sector organizations. There has been a reluctance on the part of the smaller nonprofit organizations to take on these seemingly large initiatives, to either see the applicability or be unwilling to undertake the investment in dollars and time required for such programs, which can be tied only indirectly to mission objectives. This may be for a variety of reasons, which this research will explore. Correspondingly, there is a distinct gap in the literature regarding application of performance management approaches to smaller nonprofit organizations. This study looked at performance management programs in small to medium size nonprofit organizations to better understand forces creating resistance to these programs, the degree these programs have been attempted and, perhaps more importantly, the factors which affect the success of the initiatives at small to medium size organizations in general and public charity nonprofit organizations more specifically

End user’s resistance to change from project team’s perspective

Nowadays organizations compete in dynamic and global business environment where competition is fierce and to survive the organizations need to change their operations and functions constantly (Agboola & Salawu 2011, 235, 241). Furthermore, the usage of information systems has become a necessity for the organizations (Chen, Liu & Chen) and thus, organizations use a lot of money and resources to develop their systems (Stoica & Brouse 2013, 728). However, the information system development projects often fail (Stoica & Brouse 2013, 728) and one of the reasons for the failure is the resistance to change (RTC). The RTC is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon (Hirschheim & Newman 1988, 400) and there is no simple solution how to mitigate its impact on the project outcome. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the project team and the end users and further the end users resistance to change from project team’s perspective. The objective was to find out how project team can influence on end users resistant behavior and enhance readiness for change and further, what kind of tools and methods the project team can use. The systematic literature review was made on two concepts, namely the IS project failures and the resistance to change. The empirical data was gathered through interviews and the collected data was encoded and analyzed based on the Grounded Theory methodology. The project team’s influence on end users’ RTC is limited due to the complex and multifaceted nature of the RTC formation. However, some conclusions can still be made from the gathered data. The project team can mainly influence on the end users’ RTC through the interaction between the project team and end users for instance the quality and timing of the information, the listening of end users’ concerns, and finding a mutual language. Furthermore, the collaboration within the team, the visibility of the team and planning carefully the resources for the project are important factors in the formation of end users’ RTC

Lean and Six Sigma in Hospitality Organizations: Benefits, Challenges, and Implementation

Purpose: The purpose of this paper to provide a plan and framework to successfully implement Lean and Six Sigma into a hospitality organization

Healthcare Management Primer

This primer was written by students enrolled in HMP 721.01, Management of Health Care Organizations, in the Health Management & Policy Program, College of Health and Human Services, University of New Hampshire. This course was taught by Professor Mark Bonica in Fall 2017

A realist evaluation of the contribution of Lean Six Sigma to person-centred cultures in a university hospital

Background: Lean Six Sigma, a quality improvement methodology, has been used in healthcare since 2001. Person-centred approaches to healthcare improvement are now widely advocated in political, policy and practice discourse. Literature shows quality improvement practitioners are often unaware of or pay little attention to Lean Six Sigma’s philosophical roots, seeing it less as an organisational philosophy but more as a quality improvement tool for continuous improvement. A lack of fidelity to Lean Six Sigma’s philosophical roots can create a division between person-centred approaches to transforming care experiences and services, and quality improvement methods focusing solely on efficiency and clinical outcomes. There is little research into, and a poor understanding of, the mechanisms and processes through which Lean Six Sigma education influences healthcare staff’s person-centred practice. Aim: To address the question: whether, to what extent and in what ways, Lean and Six Sigma in healthcare contribute to person-centred care and cultures. Design and methods: Realist review identified three potential Context, Mechanism, Outcome configurations (CMOcs) that explained how Lean Six Sigma influenced practice, relating to staff, patients and organisational influences. A realist evaluation explored how staff interacted with a Lean Six Sigma education programme (the intervention). Specifically, the CMOc relating to staff was adjudicated by study participants to determine whether, to what extent and in what ways it influenced person-centred care and cultures. Data collection was informed by person-centred principles and took place through a series of workshops and semi-structured interviews, followed by a review of research participants’ improvement projects outcomes. Findings: Three focused CMOcs, Aspects of Organisational Culture, the Organisation’s Receptivity and Participants’ Self-perception, emerged from the adjudication of the CMOc relating to staff, illuminating the contextual factors (C) that facilitated the outcomes (O) that arose from the underlying mechanisms (M) that were active when the contextual factors (C) were present. Synergies (respect for persons, voice of the customer, staff empowerment and observational studies), an influencer (quality) and divergences (core values, standardisation and first principles) between participants’ Lean Six Sigma practice and person-centred care and cultures were also revealed. Discussion: A return to Lean Six Sigma’s philosophical roots facilitates coherence in the philosophy, intention, methods and outcomes between Lean Six Sigma and person-centred approaches. Their combined use is not only possible but may also be desirable, enabling Lean Six Sigma practitioners to work in ways that support the development of quality, person-centred care that takes account of the outcomes for, and experiences of, patients, their families and staff. Incorporating person-centred principles into the research design, whilst adhering to the principles and rigour of realist evaluation, resulted in a new way of adjudicating CMOcs and novel methods of working with research participants. This study contributes to the evidence base on the study of quality improvement beyond the effectiveness of interventions alone. The findings will be of interest to researchers, policymakers and practitioners globally. Keywords: Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Process improvement, Person-centredness, Person-centred care, Person-centred cultures, Kaizen

Lean Six Sigma in Cameron Sense Examining improvement management in a highly technical environment for removing waste, defects and unwanted variations.

Masteroppgave økonomi og administrasjon- Universitetet i Agder, 2015(Konfidensiell til/confidential until 01.07.2020

The hidden pitfalls of Kanban in software development

ABSTRACT: Objectives of the Study: The objective of this thesis is to explore the hidden pitfalls of Kanban in software development. The aim is to discover the reasons behind the pitfalls and actions that nourish Kanban's failure. Academic background and methodology: Software development industry has been shifting towards more iterative, responsive and people-oriented development methods, which present the values of lean and agile thinking. Being characterized as the antidote for bureaucracy, the shift towards agile development methodologies has been one of the most significant factors affecting the software industry. Kanban as an agile change management framework has been perceived as the fairy godmother of software development making the reasons behind struggling Kanban projects particularly interesting. Thesis interviews five agile experts in the software development and studies their experiences of unsuccessful Kanban implementations. Emphasis is given to similar experiences and perceptions on how Kanban fails to redeem its value proposition. Findings: The primary finding of the study is that an organization that is unable to change its mindset to support Kanban is a pitfall affecting the whole project, inevitably causing Kanban to fail. This is a challenge that all agile methods have in common. Agile can flourish only when agile values are being appreciated. The secondary finding is that many software teams claiming to be using Kanban have implemented only a shallow imitation of the real method thus creating a superficial implementation, which prevents achieving Kanban induced benefits. Thus, creating a superficial implementation, which prevents achieving Kanban induced benefits. Furthermore, the erroneous human interpretation of what Kanban really is and how to apply it correctly is a key factor contributing to the emerge of the pitfalls. Keywords: Kanban, software development, pitfall, agile, change management, framewor