Lean towards learning: connecting Lean Thinking and human resource management in UK higher education

Thirkell, Emma-Jayne; Ashman, Ian

doi:10.1080/09585192.2014.948901

Cited by 93 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The processes that have been improved so far are teaching-related; however, there is certainly interdependence between teaching and research, knowledge being the focus of both roles [53]. The literature also reveals that broadening of the applicability of lean manufacturing ideas to other business sectors has advanced [54], that this is a very delicate operation [32] and that the experience of universities is not exceptional in this sense [9] [21]. Some observers nevertheless view the lean method and its derivatives as being suitable for academic institutions and holding much promise for increasing the competitiveness of universities that make a serious commitment to applying them [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education: A Review of Experiences around the World

Nadeau¹

2017

AJIBM

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Economic, demographic, social, technological and political changes worldwide are putting academic institutions under intense pressures. In response, universities are adopting new managerial approaches to their activities: lean, six sigma and lean six sigma. A portrait of this experience emerges from reviewing the literature published over the past decade using the databases Compendex & INSPEC/Engineering Village and Scopus. These approaches have been applied primarily on a highly localized basis to teaching-related processes or to services such as financing, data processing and building maintenance. Some of the challenges raised are not unknown outside of the university setting. The complexity of universities, the difficulties of interpreting notions such as the client, added value, and the connexions between teaching and research, make the implementation of these approaches difficult. While the few measured results available suggest that they do hold promise, their impact remains to be determined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Challenges that are specific to the university community arise primarily from:  The complexity of the community and its processes [4]  A negative perception among faculty [26], who feel that its academic freedom is being compromised [32].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education: A Review of Experiences around the World

Nadeau¹

2017

AJIBM

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“…Increased interest in the potential of LSS in the HEI environment is evident in pioneering work by Emiliani (2004;2005), Waterbury and Holm (2011) and Hines and Lethbridge (2008) and more recently through cases studies, evaluations and reviews Waterbury, 2015;Balzer, et al, 2016;Bateman et al, 2014). While early work in pioneering institutions reflect the experimental nature of the such initiatives, more recent work has endeavoured to identify key characteristics of the HEI environment that impact on deployment of LSS and identify key challenges faced by HEIs (Radnor and Bucci 2011;Thirkell and Ashman, 2014;Antony et al, 2012;Waterbury, 2015).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Continuous Improvement Journey in the Higher Education Sector: A Case Study of a University in Ireland

O’Reilly¹,

Healy²,

Murphy³

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Lean Six Sigma for Higher Education

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Purpose: The paper's purpose is to contribute to a developing literature in relation to Continuous Improvement (CI), incorporating Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper follows on from a previous study which focused on the initial steps taken by an Irish university on its CI journey by discussing the next steps, detailing the findings from these. Design Methodology/Approach:A participative research approach is adopted. This is the second stage in a longitudinal study designed to support on-going evaluation and learning during the CI journey. The data sources include relevant documentation and observations supported with secondary data from literature. Findings:Having a blend of external expertise as well as in-house developed expertise is a critical mix, supporting the need for improvement specialists consistent with previous research. In addition, the ability of the HEI to respond to the enthusiasm nurtured through training is key. Along with ongoing Senior Management commitment, active leadership at unit level was also found to be key.Research Limitations: This paper is based on an ongoing, longitudinal, empirical study of a single case study in Ireland and the researchers' experience as practitioners.Originality/Value: This paper tracks the development of CI in a HEI in a longitudinal manner and adds to the developing nature of the literature in this area.

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“…It also seems that our non-inclusion of these references comes as much more of a shock and an affront to Carter et al than (Cullinane et al, 2014) contained two, two articles (Bouville and Alis, 2014;Thirkell and Ashman, 2014) contained one each, and three (Lindsay et al, 2014;Sparrow and Otaye-Ebede, 2014;Stanton et al 2014 et al, 1999) is cited as many as three times, only one (Stewart et al, 2009) has two citations, two items (Mehri, 2006;Sprigg and Jackson, 2006) have just one citation each, and the other four (Danford, 1999;Delbridge, 1998;Lewchuk andRobertson, 1997, Sprigg et al, 2007) provide no real account of how consideration of the 'omitted' references might contribute to this. They describe the ways in which they claim that this literature portrays lean teams (Carter et al, 2015: 4), but provide no specific references to back this up.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Teamworking and Lean revisited: a reply to Carter et al.

Procter

Radnor

2016

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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This paper is a reply to Carter et al.'s (2015) response to an earlier paper of ours in this journal on the subject of teamworking under Lean in UK public services (Procter and Radnor, 2014). Our reply covers the following issues which Carter et al. have raised: the literature we used to structure our findings; the way in which we used concepts such as autonomy and teamworking; our research methods and approach; how Carter et al.'s newly available data on teamworking might be interpreted; and how data drawn from an official employee attitude survey might best be understood. On the basis of this we conclude that Carter et al.'s paper fails to meet its objectives. On some things the authors are simply wrong; on others, they grossly misrepresent our position; on still others, their interpretations are, at best, highly questionable.

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Lean towards learning: connecting Lean Thinking and human resource management in UK higher education

Cited by 93 publications

References 63 publications

Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education: A Review of Experiences around the World

Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education: A Review of Experiences around the World

A Continuous Improvement Journey in the Higher Education Sector: A Case Study of a University in Ireland

Teamworking and Lean revisited: a reply to Carter et al.

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