INVESTIGATION OF EMPLOYEES’ PERCEPTION ABOUT LEAN IMPLEMENTATION

Lean implementation and its sustainability are strongly linked with the organizational culture and working environment especially how employees interact with each other’s and what’s their attitude towards their jobs. Literature reveals that employee’s behaviour towards lean implementation is controversial; some perceives this positive and others take this negative. This study aims at investigating varying employees’ perceptions towards lean because of their position at work. Very commonly known lean tool ‘Kaizen’ (Continuous Improvement) has been selected for this purpose where data has been collected through a questionnaire (α=0.85) from four textile organizations (N=339; white collars and blue collars employees working at the shop floor); level and maturity of lean implementation in each organization was done before conducting the study. It has been concluded that white collar work group perceptions about Kaizen implementation are more positive than blue collar employees. Moreover, employees with the lowest positive perception are likely to be more dissatisfied with their jobs. The study also identified the factors which contribute towards the development of negative perceptions. However, the study is limited to one lean tool (Kaizen) and its implementation in textile sector. The results of the study provide opportunity to understand perceptions about lean implementation and their relationship with job satisfaction and how perceptions can be improved for the purpose of achieving higher performance through rapid lean implementation.