Widening the Six Sigma concept: An approach to improve organizational learning

Six sigma, absorptive capacity and organisational learning orientation

“…Because this relationship is already justified in the literature (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990;Lane et al, 2001;Lyles et al, 1996;Tu et al, 2006), the contribution of our study lies in observing this relationship in the context of the Six Sigma initiative, thus establishing a connection of practices like teamwork and process management to organizational learning by means of absorptive capacity, an issue absent in the research literature and whose exploration has been requested by previous studies Gowen et al, 2008;Wiklund and Wiklund, 2002). However, we wish to make two important comments that may orient future lines of research.…”

“…To do this, they foster the participation of the workers, formalize the work that they perform and encourage the workers to work as a team. People in these positions direct learning efforts Wiklund and Wiklund, 2002), becoming a resource available to help in the development of absorptive capacity . Further, according to Lenox and King (2004, p.331), "managers can develop absorptive capacity by directly providing information to agents in the organization".…”

“…According to DeMast (2006), Six Sigma's use of shared measures and indicators throughout the organization permits knowledge creation and better use of existing knowledge in the organization, facilitating the integration and coordination of processes. Focusing on common measures of performance means that companies receive knowledge about these processes (Wiklund et al, 2002). Thus, the methodological elements proposed by Choo et al (2007) stimulate the development of frequent communication, which in turn increases the amount of information available.…”

“…Those who hold positions such as "Champion", "Master Black Belt", and "Black Belt" play the role of leaders , creating recognition of the need and fostering the collective desire to learn (Senge 1999, p.38, in Choo et al, 2007, thus guiding the learning efforts Wiklund and Wiklund, 2002). Through the formation and creation of these specialized positions, Six Sigma permits the development and better use of existing knowledge in the organization (DeMast, 2006).…”

The influence of learning activity on low-skilled workers’ skill improvement in the South Korean manufacturing industry

“…The QC includes a systematic measurement for quality control and how to integrate support for a systematic quality measurement on the basis of autonomy among participants (Breyfogle and Meadows 2000;Nonthaleerak and Hendry 2006). The concept of QC gives workers a role in improving organizational outcomes through learning and is not a function limited to highskilled workers (Nonthaleerak and Hendry 2006;Wiklund and Wiklund 2002). That is, the QC focus is on providing low-skilled workers with learning opportunities and systemizing a system to support this opportunity on their autonomy, while OJT is an unplanned training programme, TFT and Knowledge Mileage System are viewed as opportunities that can encourage unplanned learning, and Six-Sigma may be far from the participants' autonomy.…”