ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Many organisations are perusing a process improvement programme in order to gain competitive advantage through improved product and service quality, operational efficiencies and customer experience. Whilst Six Sigma adopts a project-oriented, expert-led approach to improving processes, Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean and Operational Excellence (OE) programmes typically promote a culture of Continuous Improvement (CI) where lower-level employees are encouraged and empowered to evaluate and optimise their own working practices and processes. In order to make CI successful and sustainable in an organisation, employees need to have a positive attitude towards CI. Whilst previous research had already established the relationship between CI, Organisational Learning (OL) and company performance, this research set out to establish if any of the five disciplines of the Senge (1994) Learning Organisation (LO) influenced on an employee’s (positive) attitude towards CI. In keeping with the Dimensions of the Learning Organisation Questionnaire (DLOQ), the five disciplines of the LO were structured within individual, team and organisational factors. Through a structured survey and statistical correlation analysis, this research has shown that, whilst the team and organisational factors did not influence on an employee’s attitude to CI, personal mastery does have an influence on an employee’s attitude towards CI. It is therefore recommended that an organisation that wishes to create a culture of CI also actively works to improve the personal mastery of those employees who are expected to be involved in CI.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/97397 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Thompson, Gavin |
| Contributors | Mathur-Helm, Babita, Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Graduate School of Business. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ix, 70 pages |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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