Corporate Sustainability as a Challenge for Comprehensive Management

273 Pages·2008·3.409 MB·English

by  Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Zink, Ulrich Steimle, Klaus Fischer (auth.), Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Zink (eds.)

Corporate Sustainability as a Challenge
for Comprehensive Management
Klaus J. Zink (Editor)
Corporate Sustainability
as a Challenge for
Comprehensive Management
Physica-Verlag
A Springer Company
Editor:
Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Zink
Chair of Industrial Management and Human Factors
University of Kaiserslautern
Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße, Bldg. 42/316
67663 Kaiserslautern
Germany
[email protected]
ISBN 978-3-7908-2045-4 e-ISBN 978-3-7908-2046-1
Contributions to Management Science ISSN 1431-1941
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008926104
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Preface
Since the Rio Declaration of the United Nations in 1992 sustainability has
become a topic of global economic and societal relevance. Generalized
sustainability means a reasonable i.e. conservative use of available re-
sources including economic, social and environmental goals.
This point of view implies that corporate activities should not concen-
trate on short-term improvements of a single dimension but strive for a
middle to long-term balance between all three dimensions.
Corporations and other economically acting organizations need to real-
ize economic, environmental and social objectives with a long-term
perspective for the benefit of all stakeholders in order to survive.
Referring to corporate sustainability therefore two aspects are of spe-
cific relevance:
• to realize comprehensive management concepts
• based on a comprehensive change management
Comprehensive management concepts are understood as systems approach
including the interests of all relevant stakeholders with a mid- or long-term
time perspective. As seen before these definition elements are very much
related to sustainability. Such concepts can be found e.g. in international
excellence models mainly based on a TQM thinking.
Many examples in the past showed, that only one third of the companies
trying to realize such a holistic approach have been successful. The cause
of these failures can be found in the field of human factors in organiza-
tional design and management. A comprehensive change management has
to involve people and needs to change corporate culture instead of “only”
changing structures and processes. There is a challenge for integration!
This topic has been discussed during a symposium organized by the
Chair of Human Factors and Industrial Management and the Research In-
stitute for Work and Technology at the University of Kaiserslautern in
March 2007. Internationally leading scientists from nearly all parts of the
world discussed the item of sustainability from their perspective. Some of
them focused mainly on the time perspective, describing the preconditions
for a long lasting success e.g. of change projects. Others took the broader
VI Preface
perspective based on a stakeholder approach and addressed more than one
pillar of the sustainability concept.
For a better understanding it might be helpful to explain some more
definitions used very often in this book. When we talk about ergonomics
we have a broad understanding based on the definition of the International
Ergonomics Association, focusing on human-systems interface design with
at least two objectives: contributing to the wellbeing of people and en-
hancing the performance of the system. The term human factors has inter-
nationally the same meaning and is here used mainly as human factors in
organizational design and management (or human factors in ODAM). For
human factors in ODAM during the last years also the term macroergo-
nomics is used. The basis for organizational or business excellence is total
quality management (TQM). TQM is mostly understood as the process to
reach excellence. Excellence in this context is based on a broad, stake-
holder-oriented assessment concept, used by international excellence
awards.
I am very thankful to all those, who – not only came to Kaiserslautern –
but also took the time to transfer their presentation into a scientific paper
for this book. Special thanks go to my associates Dr. Ulrich Steimle and
Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Klaus Fischer, who contributed to the “opening paper”
describing the field of sustainability. Klaus Fischer was the project man-
ager for this publication – and he really did an excellent job. Stefanie Holtz
and Jens Köhler were responsible for the layout of texts and figures,
Sabine Owens helped us to realize a “readable” English version of this
book. Thank you to all of them! My final acknowledgements go to the
Springer Publishing Company, which accepted to publish this reader, and
Dr. Niels Peter Thomas who supported us in doing so.

Kaiserslautern, January 2008

Klaus J. Zink
Contents

Preface........................................................................................................V
1 Corporate Sustainability as a Challenge for Comprehensive
Management.......................................................................................1
Human Factors, Business Excellence and Corporate Sustainability:
Differing Perspectives, Joint Objectives
Klaus J. Zink, Ulrich Steimle, Klaus Fischer.........................................3
1 Sustainability as an Economic Principle...........................................4
2 Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability....................5
3 Satisfaction of Human Needs – Joint Objective though Differing
Perspectives.......................................................................................9
4 Corporate Sustainability – Synergies and Challenges for
Comprehensive Management..........................................................11
5 Conclusions.....................................................................................15
2 Comprehensive Management Concepts and Sustainable
Excellence.........................................................................................19
Performance Excellence: Path to Integrated Management and
Sustainable Success
Gopal K. Kanji.....................................................................................21
1 Business Excellence........................................................................22
2 Systems Approach...........................................................................24
3 Critical Success Factors Approach..................................................25
4 Kanji’s Business Excellence Measurement System and Kanji’s
Business Scorecard..........................................................................26
5 Empirical Evidence in Healthcare...................................................28
6 Methodology....................................................................................30
7 Conclusion.......................................................................................34
VIII Contents
Developing Sustainable Competitive Advantage through
Operational Excellence and Adaptation Excellence with
Value-Innovations
Kostas N. Dervitsiotis..........................................................................37
1 Environmental Changes and Systemic Thinking.............................37
2 The Character of a Value-Innovation..............................................38
3 The Development of Sustainable Competitive Advantage..............39
4 Analyzing the Value-Innovation Process........................................42
5 The Process Steps for Knowledge Creation Leading to Value-
Innovations......................................................................................46
6 Assessment of Proposed Value-Innovations for the Exploration of
Emerging Opportunities with Staged Investments..........................49
7 Key Metrics to Assess the Quality of the Value-Innovation Process 51
8 Leadership Aiming for a Balance Between Short- and Long-term
Goals................................................................................................52
9 Conclusions.....................................................................................53
Sustainable Improvement: Six Sigma – Lessons Learned after
Five Years of Training and Consulting
Xavier Tort-Martorell, Pere Grima, Lluis Marco...............................57
1 Sustainable Improvement................................................................57
2 UPC’s Open Enrollment Course.....................................................59
3 Lessons Learned from Black Belt Training in Open Enrollment
Courses............................................................................................62
4 In Company Black Belt Training and Coaching.............................65
5 Two Questions Concerning the Survival of Six Sigma...................71
6 Conclusions.....................................................................................73
A Strategy for Building Sustainable Innovation Excellence –
A Danish Study
Su Mi Dahlgaard-Park, Jens J. Dahlgaard.........................................77
1 Literature Study, Model Building and Simplification.....................78
2 A People Oriented Quality Strategy for Building Sustainable
Organizational Excellence...............................................................80
3 Epistemology and Ontology behind the “4P” Model......................83
4 Questionnaire Design and a Simple Approach for Measuring
Innovation Excellence.....................................................................87
5 Using the Simple Approach to Prioritize Improvement Areas........88
6 Discussion and Conclusions............................................................90
Contents IX
The Impact of Cultural Issues and Interpersonal Behavior on
Sustainable Excellence and Competitiveness: An Analysis of the
Italian Context
Vittorio Cesarotti, Caterina Spada......................................................95
1 Relevance of the Findings for Ergonomics Theory.........................95
2 Corporate Sustainability: Definitions and Models..........................96
3 A Management Model for Corporate Sustainability.......................98
4 From Corporate Sustainability to Sustainable Excellence...............98
5 Sustainable Excellence and Cultural Issues...................................100
6 Sustainable Excellence and Cultural Issues: The Italian Case.....102
7 Working on the Cultural Leverages...............................................109
8 Conclusion.....................................................................................111
3 Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management
– Creating Sustainability.............................................................115
Building Sustainable Human-Centered Systems: A Grand
Challenge for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Discipline in
the Conceptual Age
Waldemar Karwowski........................................................................117
1 Sustainability in the World of Technology, Science, and
Engineering....................................................................................117
2 Grand Challenges and Opportunities for Engineering...................121
3 Grand Challenges and Opportunities for the Human Factors and
Ergonomics Discipline in the 21st Century...................................122
4 Business and Social Sustainability: Constraints and Opportunities.123
5 Building Sustainable Human-Centered Society............................124
6 Conclusions...................................................................................125
Achieving Sustainability through Macroergonomic Change
Management and Participation
Andrew S. Imada................................................................................129
1 Sustainable Development..............................................................129
2 The Challenge to Sustainability.....................................................130
3 The Ergonomic Alternative...........................................................132
4 Conclusions...................................................................................136
X Contents
Continuous Technology Implementation and Sustainability of
Sociotechnical Change: A Case Study of Advanced Intravenous
Infusion Pump Technology Implementation in a Hospital
Pascale Carayon, Tosha B. Wetterneck, Ann Schoofs Hundt,
Steve Rough, Mark Schroeder...........................................................139
1 Introduction...................................................................................140
2 Background...................................................................................141
3 Case Study.....................................................................................144
4 Discussion.....................................................................................146
5 Conclusion.....................................................................................148
The Influence of Project Duration and Focus on Involvement in
Participatory Processes
Peter Vink..........................................................................................153
1 Introduction...................................................................................153
2 Method...........................................................................................158
3 Results...........................................................................................160
4 Discussion.....................................................................................164
The Role of Ergonomics in Securing Sustainability in Developing
Countries
Patricia Ann Scott..............................................................................171
1 Potentials to Reverse the “Negative Spiral”..................................171
2 Basic Scenario in Industrially Developing Countries....................172
3 Basic Requirements for Sustainable Change.................................175
4 Securing Sustainability..................................................................177
5 Conclusions...................................................................................179
Participation as Precondition for Sustainable Success: Effective
Workplace Improvement Procedures in Small-scale Sectors in
Developing Countries
Kazutaka Kogi...................................................................................183
1 Relevance of Participatory Workplace Improvement Procedures.183
2 Subject of Investigation.................................................................185
3 Results and Discussion..................................................................186
4 Conclusions...................................................................................196
Contents XI
The Future of Work in a Sustainable Society
Colin G. Drury...................................................................................199
1 From World through Work to Ergonomics...................................199
2 Sustainability at the World Level..................................................200
3 Growth, Limits and Perception at the World Level.......................202
4 Changes in the World of Work......................................................205
5 Adapting to a Sustainable Reality: HFE Roles..............................208
4 Sustainability as Challenge for Human Factors and
Integrated Management Systems.............................................215
Social Responsibility, Strategic Management and Comprehensive
Corporate Development: Old Roots, New Issues?
Philippe Hermel.................................................................................217
1 Numerous and Varied Concepts, but a Basis of Common
Concerns: What Are We Faced with?...........................................218
2 Old Roots: A Useful Journey Back to a Quarter of a Century Ago.221
3 What Differs 25 Years Later?........................................................223
4 Conclusion.....................................................................................227
Human Factors and Comprehensive Management Concepts:
A Need for Integration Based on Corporate Sustainability
Klaus J. Zink......................................................................................231
1 Some History.................................................................................231
2 Stakeholder-Orientation as a Common Frame?.............................235
3 Relationship between Total Quality Management and Human
Factors in the Past..........................................................................237
4 Integration in Concepts of Sustainability as a Common Challenge.240
5 Conclusion.....................................................................................248
About the Authors....................................................................................255