Lean higher education and its impact on employee working conditions and outcomes

Alqurashi, Nouf 2021. Lean higher education and its impact on employee working conditions and outcomes. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Over the last decade, cuts to government funding for higher education (HE) have forced UK higher education institutions (HEI) to increase tuition fees paid by students by over 200%. This has increased students’ demand for HEIs to deliver a high-quality service, and consequently increased pressure on their professional services to do more with less. Increasingly, institutions have to compete with each other to attract students, who typically rely on service quality metrics such as; University Rankings, National Student Surveys (NSS) scores, and scores from the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), to inform their choice of institution. Within this context, Lean higher education (HE) has been heralded as the path to efficiency improvement in the modern UK HEI and hence, has gained significant traction over the last decade. Nonetheless, research on the state, progress and impact of Lean HE has lagged. This research sets out to contribute towards filling this gap in Lean HE research by exploring a number of inter-related research questions. These questions focus on (1) the extent to which higher educational institutions (HEI) in the UK have adopted Lean management practices, (2) the benefits and challenges of adopting Lean in a higher education context, (3) the impact of Lean on employee working conditions, and (4) the impact of Lean on employee outcomes. Using the Socio-Technical Systems (STS) Theory as a theoretical lens to unpack the research questions, the research adopts a qualitative research approach, collecting data through interviews with Lean practitioners working on Lean projects within UK HE. The research proceeds in two phases; phase I (a pilot and an initial study) and phase II (the main study). The initial phase of the study collects data through interviews with 12 practitioners working within one UK HEI. The pilot and the initial study is critical to understanding Lean HE practice and fine-tuning the interview protocol. The second phase involves interviews with 32 Lean practitioners across 7 different HEIs. Besides the transcribed interview data, the researcher also draws inferences from archival data on Lean projects obtained from a few of the participating institutions. With the help of Nvivo, a thematic analytical framework (based on the interview protocol) is deployed to identify and explore recurring themes within the data. By way of findings, this research has documented the perceptions of practitioners working in Lean HEI projects focusing on their thoughts about what Lean entails and its suitability for HEIs. The research finds that practitioners within this environment share the views of Lean documented in the extant literature, albeit, with a strong focus on the “respect�for-people” principle. The benefits enjoyed by applying Lean in different sectors is shared by 4 institutions adopting Lean in the HE sector. The research documents some of the unique challenges faced by institutions adopting Lean, notably the presence of silos and the autonomous nature of various units within HEI. To the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study exploring the impact of Lean on employee working conditions and outcomes in the UK HE setting. Overall, the research finds that Lean has improved employee motivation, job satisfaction, autonomy, the working environment, organisational commitment and communication within this context. There is some evidence that Lean leads to work-related stress. The findings on how Lean impacts on employee workload are mixed, with some respondents arguing that Lean increases workload while others arguing otherwise. There was no clear evidence on how Lean has impacted employee retention in UK HE. Further, this study explores the perceptions of two key groups of stakeholders directly involved in the deployment process; Lean team leaders/managers and Lean team members. Summarily, there is broad consensus amongst team leaders and team members that Lean improves job satisfaction, employee autonomy and communication. However, there is a general lack of consensus on how Lean impacts on retention, work-related stress, employee workload, psychological safety, the working environment and employees’ organisational commitment. In several cases, the lack of consensus arises from the fact that either leaders or members are unsure about the impact of Lean on a specific issue. Importantly, the study raises some concerns about differences in the perceptions of key stakeholders on the impact of Lean. Given the importance of communication in successful Lean implementation, this finding generates new questions about the nature of Lean deployment in this context. Finally, the research highlights the fact that Lean leaders within HE do not fully understand the impact of Lean on employees. Data on this issue is not routinely collected and there are rarely any processes to collect feedback from employees on how Lean impacts on them, as the focus is typically on how employee characteristics shape Lean success. This research is vital as part of efforts to promote sustainability of continuous improvement initiatives in the UK HE sector. It is an essential part of the debate on Lean’s relevance for HEIs and how Lean can be tailored to better suit the HE environment.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1/Higher Education 2/Lean 3/Leader 4/Team member 5/UK university 6/Qualitative Research 7/ Lean sustainability 8/perceptions of lean
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 April 2021
Date of Acceptance:	21 April 2021
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2022 02:05
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/140606

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