Leadership and the Social Psychology of Lean Enterprise

Lean enterprise is the Toyota Production System applied not only in the production department but inside all organizational departments (finance, marketing, etc.). It focuses on continuously adding value to processes while improving efficiency and inputs management. No organization exists that has fully mastered the Lean ideology. Many like Toyota have applied it for decades and seen results, while others have seen none and abandon the chase. It is important to understand that leaders are an essential instrument for an effective and successful Lean implementation. Further, there are variables that affect a leader’s behavior which in turn will have an impact on the organizational performance. In other words, different leadership styles will result in desirable or undesirable organizational outcomes. It is important for organizations striving for Lean improvements to have the most effective leadership in place. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to is to explore the variables interacting with leadership behavior and with a successful Lean implementation. Venturing into the future, this paper proposes a potential model of these interactions and a questionnaire measuring the separate variables