Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Karen D. Bowser

Committee Member

Ralph J. Rich

Committee Member

Maryellen Maher

Keywords

Organizational Change/Job Satisfaction/Health Care/Justice/Trust (Psychology)

Abstract

A Midwest health-care organization’s decision to adopt a lean management system and embed lean thinking into its culture had significant organizational effects. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and analyze how employee satisfaction in a health-care organization was affected by the implementation of a lean management system.

The implementation of a lean management system created shifts in the psychological contract of the health-care employees and their organization. Employees reported experiencing higher expectations for flexibility and adaptability to changes in the workplace. In turn, the employees expected more support from their managers.

A key contributor to higher employee satisfaction in this rapidly changing work environment was management support. Other contributing factors included improved work processes and supportive team relationships. Key inhibitors of satisfaction included failure to sustain improvements, increased workload, and staffing level concerns.

Satisfaction trend data suggested a difference in satisfaction levels between employees with experience on two or more lean rapid improvement events (RIE) and those who did not have this experience. Employees with RIE experience reported significantly higher levels of trust, greater belief that the organization had kept its commitments to them, an improved ability to perform their job (distributive justice), more clarity regarding decisions that affected their job (procedural justice), and better understanding of why changes were made (procedural justice). While not significantly different, the perceptions of fair process and improved outcomes with changes in the workplace were higher among the RIE participants. The findings of this study suggested that active involvement in the lean improvement activities fosters the conditions for employee engagement in which employees feel respected, are able to give meaningful input into changes that affect their work, and develop trusting relationships with their manager.

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