Lean talent acquisition: one team’s journey of improvement

Purpose – This paper aims to describe how lean performance improvement principles helped transform an integrated healthcare system’s talent acquisition team to best in class. Design/methodology/approach – Spectrum Health’s talent acquisition team is needed to change its functional processes to better achieve its recruitment goals. In 2013, the system’s talent acquisition and process improvement teams partnered to conduct a value stream analysis, followed by five rapid improvement events and project work. Structural and institutional changes were defined and implemented. Significant cultural change toward a philosophy of continuous improvement was accomplished through the use of managing for daily improvement huddles and other efforts. The focus throughout was on lean thinking, change management and achieving meaningful results. Findings – After the lean process implementation, time to fill for open positions was reduced by 10 per cent. The offer acceptance rate increased from 96 to 99.6 per cent, with fewer than 25 turndowns annually. Customer and candidate satisfaction has been maintained at above 90 per cent and operating in a culture of continuous improvement has spawned several additional benefits. Originality/value – Lean principles applied within human resources functions can drive significant business results.

Understanding team mental models affecting Kaizen event success

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify inhibitors and enablers of Kaizen event effectiveness, as perceived by participants, and categorize them into shared mental models to understand the factors participants believe to be affecting Kaizen event success. The findings are also interpreted using the lens of attribution bias and previous studies of Kaizen event effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach involving coding responses from participants was adopted. The identified significant inhibitors and enablers were then assigned to shared mental model types using a mapping and categorization approach. Findings – The results are largely consistent with previous studies and show that job/task and technology/equipment mental models dominate participant views of inhibitors, while enablers were primarily drawn from team and team interaction mental models. This also suggests that attribution bias is present. Research limitations/implications – The methods used to measure shared mental models in this study are cross-sectional and exploratory in nature. Future research could involve the intensive study of a smaller number of Kaizen events over time. Practical implications – The findings in this study can be used by organizations to identify training needs for Kaizen event teams by identifying areas of potential attribution bias, by divergence of perceptions between facilitators and team members and by underestimated factor effects. Originality/value – This investigation offers understanding of the Kaizen event team shared mental models with respect to inhibitors and enablers of event success. Organizations can harness common perceptions among continuous process improvement teams to increases chances of Kaizen event success.

Virtual Teams Adapt to Simple E-Collaboration Technologies

The knowledge that virtual process improvement teams have been successful (DeLuca, Gasson, & Kock, 2006; Kock & DeLuca, 2006; DeLuca & Valacich, 2006; Kock, 2006) and lessons learned from those teams may be what is needed to provide confidence to organizations that virtual process improvement efforts would come to fruition. To manage such initiatives effectively, it is important to understand how these virtual teams overcame the difficulties of e-collaboration. Existing theories of information processing in organizations do not scale well to the complex forms of knowledge integration required at the boundary between the diverse teams found in virtual organizations. Thus, we based our investigation on a new theory of communication behavior, compensatory adaptation theory (CAT) (Kock, 2005b) and the relationships suggested by it, explained in the next section. We also operationalize a key construct, compensatory adaptations and present the adaptations made by participants in the study (DeLuca et al., 2006).

Participatory Improvement at a Global Bank: The Diffusion of Quality Teams and the Demise of a Six Sigma Initiative

This paper traces the diffusion of cross-functional process improvement teams in a multinational bank's Six Sigma program. Rates of team formation were high where clerical workers received low wages relative to managers and professionals, experienced weak wage growth, were less likely to rise into supervisory positions, and formed a shrinking proportion of bank employment; and where managerial and professional wage gains and employment growth were strong. These conditions did not provide a stable basis for participatory improvement, however, and team formation faltered in more stratified work-places over time. We argue that team projects are most useful to managers where recent or ongoing workplace restructuring has marginalized the position of clerical staff. In the long run, quality teams prove ephemeral due to tension between their participatory ethos and the technocratic project they embody.