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This study has implications for healthcare practitioners to make greater efforts to implement lean practices and soft TQM. Future studies are suggested to highlight different challenges facing quality improvement in the Region.

As a set of tools and standards, Total Quality Management (TQM) tends to focus on individual processes to improve the productivity and efficiency of organizations. For the same objective, many organizations adapt the Lean production system in their strategies to eliminate waste and reduce the non-value-adding activities. Thus, organizations are looking for innovative ways to achieve more with fewer resources. Yet, innovations are restricted because the process of generating new ideas and making effective decisions is limited to just a few people, and no broad employee participation is achieved, resulting in the waste of intellectual talent. This paper aims to discuss the impact of both Lean production and TQM on innovation performance. In addition, it presents a conceptual model to understand this relationship, supported by literature review from recent studies. This discussion provides insights into more specific features related to Human Relations Management and Improvement Strategies that can be utilized to advance the intellectual capabilities at any organization, thereby providing chances of successful innovation performance.

When studying the regular quality practices in hospitals, it is essential to focus on the 5S as it reflects the daily activities of healthcare providers. The aim of this research is to study the effect of 5S-quality approach on employee performance in some Lebanese hospitals. Based on a quantitative approach, a survey was conducted among four hospitals in South Lebanon and 240 self-administered questionnaires were distributed randomly among target respondents. The collected primary data was analyzed by SPSS software. Statistical tests were applied for hypothesis testing such as correlation and regression analysis tests. The obtained results showed that 5S is significantly and positively affecting employee performance except for Sort. This study was limited to the constricted geographical zone and small number of hospitals was surveyed. Future studies may enlarge the research empirically and study different quality approaches.

Up to 2016, Lebanon was ranked the first among the Arab countries in the high level of corruption in its administration and public institutions. This corruption has penetrated the Lebanese healthcare sector deeply and has spread at different levels including hospitalization, medicine, and most notably within the healthcare financing system. The objective of this paper is to highlight the major global corruption practices in health sector while focusing on the current state of Lebanon. Secondary data and statistics are obtained from published reports, statements and interviews. Mainly, there is an irrational high expenditure and relative surplus in the healthcare market especially for medical equipment’s. In addition, there is a gap in health policies in terms of laws, regulations, and governance practices such as lack of accountability; transparency and access to information. Key implications are presented for healthcare practitioners to adapt anti-corruption interventions and coordinate with the guarantors in curbing the financial corruption and raising the social awareness. Future studies can expand this issue empirically and put the discussion into a comparison approach. This paper highlights some of the announced corrupt practices in the Lebanese healthcare sector and proposes proactive anti-corruption interventions for much more hidden violations.