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The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between organizational structure and lean implementation success and to explore the impact of a lean implementation on the development of employee problem-solving skills. Organizations that implement lean manufacturing strategies experience widely differing results, with unexpected outcomes for some organizations.

This study was conducted using qualitative research methodologies. Specifically, a case study was performed at an electronics manufacturer in the northwestern USA over a three-month time period. The researchers collected data from a variety of sources at the manufacturing site.

Two significant findings emerged. First, the lack of dedicated personnel for the lean implementation inhibited the widespread adoption of lean practices. Second, evidence supported the role of the lean implementation in positively affecting employee problem-solving skills.

This paper is relevant to most manufacturing organizations; however, lean implementations are likely as unique as the organizations themselves. Given that the study used a single-site case study, utilizing qualitative methods, additional research is needed to confirm the findings for a larger range of manufacturing organizations. The results do indicate, however, that an organization with fewer resources to dedicate to the lean effort may find the transformation process slow and may experience fewer performance benefits. Likewise, further empirical study would help strengthen the findings regarding the relationship between the lean implementation and noticeable improvement in employee problem-solving skills.

The literature stream for lean manufacturing provides examples of how lean implementations have not only noticeably affected tangible metrics related to profits and expenses but have also helped positively influence factors such as employee safety, morale and empowerment. For some organizations, considering the effect of these intangible factors before committing to a new manufacturing approach may prove useful. This study focused on exploring, in a much deeper way, through qualitative methods, how organizational structure can impact a lean implementation and how it ultimately acts as a catalyst for the increased development of employee problem-solving skills.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of an assessment methodology to empirically measure and evaluate the impact of kaizen events on organizational performance, including human resource outcomes.

A field study of two kaizen events held within a single organization utilizing both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interviews and organizational documents) data was conducted. Sustainability of outcomes was also studied.

This study empirically illustrates that, even within a single organization, kaizen events may have varied success. Management support was found to be related to human resource outcomes. Positive attitudes at the conclusion of a successful event, however, did not automatically translate to sustained improvements. Additionally, the kaizen event team with a more limited scope was better able to meet targeted business objectives.

The methodology described can assess the impact of kaizen events on business performance and human resource outcomes; the latter has largely been ignored in the kaizen events scholarly literature. This study demonstrates that initial success in business outcomes and human resource outcomes are not necessarily correlated and that success may vary over time. Leaders need to pay close attention to follow‐up mechanisms to ensure sustainability.

We argue that in order to address the contemporary challenges that organizations and societies are facing, the field of organization development (OD) requires frameworks and skills to focus on the eco-system as the level of analysis. In a world that has become economically, socially, and technologically highly connected, approaches that foster the optimization of specific actors in the eco-system, such as individual corporations, result in sub-optimization of the sustainability of the natural and social system because there is insufficient offset to the ego-centric purposes of the focal organization. We discuss the need for OD to broaden focus to deal with technological advances that enable new ways of organizing at the eco-system level, and to deal with the challenges to sustainable development. Case examples from healthcare and the agri-foods industry illustrate the kinds of development approaches that are required for the development of healthy eco-systems. We do not suggest fundamental changes in the identity of the field of organizational development. In fact, we demonstrate the need to dig deeply into the open systems and socio-technical roots of the field, and to translate the traditional values and approaches of OD to continue to be relevant in today’s dynamic interdependent world.

This chapter explores what managers in the library and information science workplace can do to keep stress and burnout levels low. The literature on stress and burnout in human services, or the helping professions, is surveyed and the differences between the two phenomena are explained. Research is clear that keeping stress levels low and burnout at bay in the workplace benefits both employees and the organization. Even so, managers are given little training on how to identify and deal with stress and often fail to notice that their employees are chronically stressed. When managers become aware that they do have employees who are seriously stressed or burned out, they are often unsure whether they should address the problem and how to handle it. The author explains the differences between stress and burnout and clarifies how managers can minimize their negative impact by monitoring six areas in which workers are most likely to experience them: (1) the demands of the job which include the quantity of work and the knowledge required to perform; (2) the amount of control employees are permitted to exercise in the workplace; (3) the amount of the social support employee’s feel they have from managers and colleagues; (4) the quality of workplace relationships; (5) the clarity of one’s role on the job; and (6) support and honest communication during times of change. The practical implication of this information aimed at managers is to help them create a better workplace and mentally and physically healthier staff members.

The authors discuss a large system transformation project they designed and implemented in Slovenia at the start of its independence in the early 1990s. Post-mortem insights are useful for practitioners who embark on similarly broad transformation processes. Design issues are discussed such as structuring the pre-contracting phase to guarantee inclusive stakeholder representation and participation throughout the transformation process and how intervention design needs to allow for experimentation and multi-stakeholder alliance building. Application of action research and action learning in a risk-averse environment typical of central governments helped create a sense of ownership, control, and collective accountability in the partner country.

Organization development is focused on implementing a planned process of positive humanistic change in organizations through the use of social science theory, action research, and data-based feedback methods. The role of personality in that change process, however, has historically been ignored or relegated to a limited set of interventions. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a conceptual overview of the linkages between personality and OD, discuss the current state of personality in the field including key trends in talent management, and offer a new multi-level framework for conceptualizing applications of personality for different types of OD efforts. The chapter concludes with implications for research and practice.

This chapter introduces the volume’s theme by considering how the forces of globalization and complexity are leading organizations to reshape and redesign themselves, how meeting the challenges of sustainable effectiveness and shared value require multiorganization networks and partnerships, and how networks and partnerships develop, function, and can produce both private benefits and public goods.

We apply findings from social and political evolution frameworks, partnership and collaboration research, and design for sustainability concepts to induce the likely conditions required for sustainable effectiveness from a network perspective.

Successful partnerships and collaborations in service of sustainable effectiveness will require individual organizations to change their objective function and build new and varied internal and external capabilities.

The chapter sets the stage for the volume’s contributions.

This chapter explores the potential roles and contributions of “marginal stakeholders” in sustainability collaborations. A group of smaller and less powerful NGOs engaged in a three-year collaboration to build capacity and drive action to address the severe water situation in Beijing, China. That the NGOs were the primary driver of the collaboration provides a unique opportunity to explore and understand whether and how the less powerful constituents of a network can organize to influence such broad, complex, and challenging issues.

The case study is the result of a participant action research effort. The author served as researcher, observer, participant, and consultant during different phases of the collaboration.

Individual members and the network as a whole demonstrated increased capacity and capability, but mostly failed to drive action. By themselves, small and marginal stakeholders have limited capacity or capability to effect large-scale sustainability efforts. With coaching, development, and a shared agenda, they may emerge as a force for change, but there are significant hurdles to overcome.

The successes and failures of a steering committee formed early in the collaboration provide concrete guidelines for anyone who wants to help marginal stakeholders play change agent roles in complex networks.

Very little is known about the role of “marginal” or “fringe” stakeholders in network collaborations. This case demonstrates the potential contribution of these stakeholders but also identifies the hazards associated with their participation.

Leadership is necessary for organizational effectiveness (Kroeck et al., 2004), a finding that applies to student organizations at institutions of higher education (Plante, 2016; Posner, 2012). However, student leaders of campus organizations face nuanced and significant challenges (Foubert & Urbanski, 2006; Plante, 2016). Therefore, we sought to diagnose and analyze the central challenge of a peer leadership position within a collegiate leadership mentoring program. After diagnosing the central challenge of the position, we built a training and development intervention grounded in the leadership theory of consideration versus structure (Halpin & Winer, 1957; Stogdill, 1974). The intervention was administered to two cohorts of seven student leaders and subsequently assessed for effectiveness. The current paper shares the assessment results, along with details on developing and implementing the leadership intervention. We hope practitioners can (a) implement the process we outline to conduct a needs assessment and create a leadership development intervention and (b) utilize the training in their co-curricular organizations.