Abstract
Purpose How do organisations know which problems are worthy of their attention? Despite good intentions, many attempts to solve problems fail. One reason for this failure might be because of attempts to solve non-problems or to solve problems with insufficient means, a concept proposed by Deming as tampering. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition of tampering, outline what is currently known about possible practical implications of tampering and to suggest how to extend this knowledge by proposing an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach To fulfil the purpose, a narrative literature review was conducted. Findings Through this review, common aspects of what constitutes tampering are identified and the following definition is proposed: Tampering is a response to a perceived problem in the form of an action that is not directed at the fundamental cause of the problem, which leads to a deterioration of the process or the process output. In addition, recommendations are generated regarding how tampering manifests itself in practice and why tampering occurs. These recommendations could be studied in future research. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that suggests a revitalisation of tampering. The results presented in this paper form the basis for continued studies on how tampering in organisations can be understood, managed and prevented.
Highlights
Despite dedicated efforts from organisations to make process improvements, scholars continuously report about failed initiatives (McLean et al, 2017; Antony and Gupta, 2019), actions not resulting in improvements and, in worst case, actions having negative impact on a process (Van Gestel et al, 2015; Georgantzas, 2018)
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a contemporary definition of tampering, to outline what is currently known about the practical implications of tampering and to suggest how to extend this knowledge by proposing an agenda for future research
This paper argues that the underlying idea of tampering, i.e. to use knowledge about variation to identify and respond to problems, is still relevant
Summary
Despite dedicated efforts from organisations to make process improvements, scholars continuously report about failed initiatives (McLean et al, 2017; Antony and Gupta, 2019), actions not resulting in improvements and, in worst case, actions having negative impact on a process (Van Gestel et al, 2015; Georgantzas, 2018). One possible reason for these undesirable results is difficulties in identifying the major root cause problems (Sunder and Prashar, 2020). Digitisation has, on the one hand, facilitated problem identification through increased access to data and customer feedback; on the other hand, the increased communication with customers has increased customers’ expectations of having their specific troubles addressed very quickly (Birch-Jensen et al, 2020). The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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