Continuous change, process and performance improvement A holistic systems perspective

In 2 vols.SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN027907 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Continuous change, process and performance improvement : a holistic systems perspective

The business market of today is much more complex than it has ever been before,making it much more difficult for businesses to not only enter the market place, but toalso survive and compete successfully against rival firms. The relatively recent pressuresof rapid technological development, changing markets and market forces, as well as thefast-paced dynamic nature of the individual markets themselves, all demand thatorganisations change and adapt on a continuous basis.Various approaches to change and continuous improvement that currently exist withinavailable literature, all of which suggest different methods for changing and improving anorganisation. The available literature was used to create a comprehensiveimplementation program/methodology that guides organisations through the process ofchange and improvement. This change and improvement program was then tested withinseveral case study organisations within the North West of England.The selected case study organisations represent a cross-section of industries: world classorganisations, who have been recognised for their excellence through Excellence NorthWest (an independent organisation that audits companies using the European FoundationQuality Model - EFQM - refer to appendix Q); organisations that plan and eithersucceed or fail and finally organisations who do not formally plan forchange/improvement and who either succeed or fail.The conclusions of the case study research show that organisations could make use of anholistic implementation guide to help them manage the change and improvement process.The implementation program developed from best practice and theory provides anoriginal holistic systems approach that has proven itself to be a robust methodologywithin several companies in the North West, through its convergence with company bestpractice. The originality stems from the implementation process which was developed bythe author, from the various approaches available in current literature, and from the factthat it combines strategic organisational change management with continuousimprovement - a need identified by Choi (1995). Further work and testing of theimplementation program would be required to determine if it is generic

Continuous change, process and performance improvement: A holistic systems perspective.

This booklet contains information that is organised in such a way as to provide an overview of the implementation program, an overview of the "hierarchy" and interactions of the teams used to implement, manage and sustain change and continuous improvement, both of which are designed to aid in the understanding of the full six phase model; each phase of which will be treated in separate sections within this booklet, which is not intended to be a discussion or explanation of the Program, or of the techniques and methods used within the Implementation Program (such discussions and explanations are contained and restricted to the Ph.D. thesis)