Kaizen

Written on 13 April 2015. Posted in Developing managerial skills

Kaizen comes from the Japanese words wisdom and school. It was born in Japan after the second world war and it refers to a system aimed at improving the business so as to guarantee quality and productivity. It is based one several pillars:

It is continuous. It does not take place once a year or in a particular period of the year, it is an on-going activity, on a day-to-day basis.

Everyone is involved, not just the managers or top-managers but also the low-end workers. In fact, it is a bottom-up approach. All workers and employees can make suggestions about how to improve several aspects of the business, especially processes and procedures or practical issues related to logistics and reducing waste.

Employees coming up with an idea will receive feedback on that idea which either will be implemented or will be left aside. However, especially in the latter case, the managers will explain to the person why his/her idea cannot be implemented.

Everything will be questioned for improvement. Kaizen is not just about ‘fixing’ things which may not work. It is about improving things that may work well today but they may not be adequate or effective in a few years time.

What about us then? Does kaizen reflect our way of thinking and acting? Do we give credit to our employees for the good ideas they may have? Are we ready to try and implement these ideas? Are we brave enough to take the risks, question our assumptions and find a better way to do business so as to reach a higher level of quality and productivity?

Rethinking the Adaptive Leadership model through the Italian Adaptive Leadership Behavior Questionnaire

Since Heifetz designed the adaptive leadership framework in 1994, the academic literature has benefitted from many qualitative research studies focusing on specific adaptive challenges and how the adaptive leadership framework can be practically used to face these. It seems very few have dealt with adaptive leadership through the quantitative lens and have attempted to measure adaptive leadership behaviors or tested Heifetz’s adaptive leadership six-dimensional model. In response, my PhD research aimed to measure the perception of adaptive leadership behaviors across the Italian corporate context and to investigate whether Heifetz’s adaptive leadership model can apply to the Italian culture. Findings and contribution to knowledge can be read in the thesis: Novellini, P. (2023) Rethinking the Adaptive Leadership model through the Italian Adaptive Leadership Behavior Questionnaire, PhD thesis, University of Sunderland.

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Novellini - Hall Italian Adaptive Leadership Behavior Questionnaire

Do you want to measure the perception of adaptive leadership within your company or team? You can use 'Novellini - Hall Adaptive Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire', a new tool in the literature of leadership. This questionnaire was designed especially to be used in the business environment with a perspective on the higher level figures in the hierarchy. However, you can use it in any type of environment and at any level by adapting the terminology to the reality you want to focus on.

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