Lean leadership attributes: a systematic review of the literature

Kjeld Harald Aij,Maurits Teunissen

doi:10.1108/jhom-12-2016-0245

Kjeld Harald Aij, Maurits Teunissen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1108/jhom-12-2016-0245

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Abstract

PurposeEmphasis on quality and reducing costs has led many health-care organizations to reconfigure their management, process, and quality control infrastructures. Many are lean, a management philosophy with roots in manufacturing industries that emphasizes elimination of waste. Successful lean implementation requires systemic change and strong leadership. Despite the importance of leadership to successful lean implementation, few researchers have probed the question of ideal leadership attributes to achieve lean thinking in health care. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into applicable attributes for lean leaders in health care.Design/methodology/approachThe authors systematically reviewed the literature on principles of leadership and, using Dombrowski and Mielke’s (2013) conceptual model of lean leadership, developed a parallel theoretical model for lean leadership in health care.FindingsThis work contributes to the development of a new framework for describing leadership attributes within lean management of health care.Originality/valueThe summary of attributes can provide a model for health-care leaders to apply lean in their organizations.

Highlights

Rising health-care costs have been attributed to factors including aging populations, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer, expensive technologies and pharmaceuticals, and increasing complexity
One popular model used for these reconfigurations is lean, a management philosophy and process methodology derived from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (Womack et al, 1990)
Study designs varied widely and included two systematic and four informal literature reviews; eight analyses of Articles in the period of 2000-2016 Articles that connected lean management to health care Articles that were connected to leadership Articles that were connected to leadership attributes English articles

Summary

Introduction

Rising health-care costs have been attributed to factors including aging populations, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer, expensive technologies and pharmaceuticals, and increasing complexity. Emphasis on quality has led many health-care organizations to reconfigure their management, process, and quality control infrastructures. One popular model used for these reconfigurations is lean, a management philosophy and process methodology derived from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (Womack et al, 1990). Lean’s origins are found in the process improvement strategies designed by Henry Ford (Womack and Jones, 1996), which were further refined by engineers at Toyota Motor Company between 1949 and 1975, resulting in TPS.

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