Modeling continuous improvement evolution in the service sector

Milner, Christopher; Savage, Barbara

doi:10.1108/ijqss-07-2016-0052

Cited by 41 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Here, practitioners need to have confidence that they can make decisions about RCI campaigns without fear of repercussions. Leveraging the conceptual tenets of continuous improvement theory, firms have to drive a cultural change that empowers shop floor teams to make decisions and implement change (Milner and Savage, 2016). Base on this, we posit: H2.…”

Section: Supply Chain Disruption-orientation and Recovery/continuous Improvement Capabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating manifest supply chain disruptions

Riley

Klein

Miller

et al. 2019

TQM

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand if organizations can leverage recovery/continuous improvement (RCI) capabilities and two competencies to mitigate manifest supply chain (SC) disruptions. Specifically, the authors examine how learning from previous experience and SC disruption-orientation affects organizations’ capability to recover/continuously improve once a SC disruption has manifested. In addition, knowing that organizational inertia likely exists during disruptions, the authors examine the mediating effects of routine rigidity on proposed relationships. Design/methodology/approach To determine how these antecedents impact an organization’s RCI capabilities, the authors collected survey data from 219 procurement managers and analyzed these records using structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that by fostering SC disruption-orientation and developing competencies to learn from previous experience, firms can enhance their RCI capabilities, which in turn improves operational performance. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate how routine rigidity mediates the positive effects these antecedents have on the RCI capabilities construct. Originality/value By developing these risk management (RM) tactics and managing routine rigidity, organizations broaden their continuous improvement capability, which enables practitioners to respond to and recover from manifest disruptions. When used in conjunction with other RM tactics, such as inventory and/or redundant capacity, organizations can address an array of disruption scenarios.

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Section: Supply Chain Disruption-orientation and Recovery/continuous Improvement Capabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating manifest supply chain disruptions

Riley

Klein

Miller

et al. 2019

TQM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Organizational culture influences heavy investment and resource allocation decisions to provide a strong appreciation of creativity, positive and proactive attitudes towards changes, a high degree of flexibility aiming at business excellence (Che-Ha et al , 2012) and continuous improvement engaging people (Milner and Savage, 2016). Organizational culture has a direct and mainly indirect impact on organizational performance through the mediation of employee’s organizational commitment (Nikpour, 2017).…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of strong and balanced organizational cultures on firm performance

Polychroniou

Trivellas

2018

IJQSS

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Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and performance. It concerns the aspects of culture related to culture strength and unbalance and its impact on introvert and extrovert firm performance, controlling for business environment and size. Design/methodology/approach Based on the competing values model (CVM), culture strength is measured as the intensity of the culture values driving the company. The cultural unbalance is measured by the sum of absolute deviations of organizational members’ culture perceptions across the four archetypes (adhocracy, clan, hierarchy and market) imposed by CVM from the individual “average” shared cultural value. Evidence is drawn upon a sample of 1,305 employees of 114 Greek firms. Findings The findings indicate a strong positive relationship between culture strength and internal performance (innovation competence and human relations) as well as firm outcomes (profitability, growth and reputational assets). On the contrary, culture unbalance exerts a negative influence to market position, growth and innovation competence. Practical implications Understanding the nature of the association between culture strength, unbalance and firm performance would enable academics and practitioners to reflect critically on the core culture values which shape employee involvement and formulate leaders’ quality improvement decisions and actions, so as to achieve sustainable competitive advantage at the organizational level. Originality/value This research provides supporting empirical evidence for the culture–performance link by identifying the principle culture value characteristics (strength and unbalance), which exert both direct and interaction effects on the introvert and extrovert aspects of firm performance.

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“…As competitive pressure on profit margins increases, the interest of service firms to re-examine their productivity and apply CI grows (Carlborg et al , 2013; Milner and Savage, 2016). At the same time, the research on CI in services is considerably scarce.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can continuous improvement lead to satisfied customers? Evidence from the services industry

Koval

Nabareseh

Chromjaková

et al. 2018

TQM

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Purpose To achieve higher customer satisfaction (CS), companies implement continuous improvement (CI) programs, regardless of the growing evidence of their failure to achieve declared goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify whether companies are able to improve CS through the application of CI; and, second, to identify what organizational practices are able to facilitate the impact of CI on CS. Design/methodology/approach To test the developed assumptions, the study uses the structural equation modeling technique. The data for analysis were collected from 304 service companies via a custom web-survey. Findings The research confirms the direct positive impact of CI on CS. Further, the study demonstrates that management commitment and rewards system that encourages employees to participate in CI play the major facilitating role in improving CS through CI. These practices accompanied by quality-oriented culture and employee training in the improvement tools provide necessary infrastructure to sustain CI in the companies over time. Additionally, regardless of the vital role of goal setting for CI established in previous research, the proposed study finds a limited ability of goal setting, as compared to other organizational practices, to facilitate CI–CS relationship. Originality/value The study contributes to the scarce field of research on CI implementation in the services environment. Further, the research assesses CS as a variable of interest, as opposite to the previous studies, considering CS as a part of the composite variable. The research assesses the impact of the training in CI methodology on the CI–CS relationship, while previous research focuses on the general, work-related training. The findings provide an important basis for further academic work in the area of quality management. The identified practices can serve as guidance for managers, implementing CI in their companies due to the high fit of the proposed model.

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Modeling continuous improvement evolution in the service sector

Cited by 41 publications

References 37 publications

Mitigating manifest supply chain disruptions

Mitigating manifest supply chain disruptions

The impact of strong and balanced organizational cultures on firm performance

Can continuous improvement lead to satisfied customers? Evidence from the services industry

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