Sustained Impacts of Kaizen Training

We conducted a randomized controlled trial of short-term management training for small manufacturers in two study sites in Vietnam and collected follow-up data repeatedly for two years to assess longer-term impacts than the existing studies of management training. Our training programs introduced participants to Kaizen, a common-sense approach to production management. In both sites, many participants started to recognize the importance of learning about management and improved their management skills. The impacts on management skills were statistically significant two years after the programs. Our results suggest that the training program increased participants’ value added in one of the two study sites, likely because they learned how to eliminate wastes in production.Emerging State ProjectJEL Classification Codes: L2, M1, O1http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/sonobe_tetsushi

Interviews for workaround coordination

We investigate how employees react when confronted with an enterprise system that does not fit with work processes dictated by local realities. We draw on interview data from a multinational company to reveal how employees devised and coordinated workarounds that were not compliant with corporate IT policy, but enabled the completion of essential activities, thereby creating value for the firm and its customers