Doctorat HEC

When the transition of operational activities is framed not as an instantaneous optimization problem but rather a series of incremental opportunistic choices formal continuous improvement (CI) capabilities prove useful. However, despite the well documented advantages of CI management, implementation failures are discouragingly high (Jazayeri and Hopper, 1999). In the quality literature the most significant reason for reported failure is cultural resistance (Irani et al., 2003) due in part to insufficient trust (Chenhall and Langfield-Smith 2003) and learning anxiety (Busco et al.,2006). The authors suggest from this work that the introduction of accounting-based dynamic (or learning) CI capabilities could reduce this problem. This paper uses interventionist/constructivist research to design and implement a Management Control System informed by theory to provide improved dynamic CI capabilities. The researchers, consistent with a position taken by Covaleski et al. (2003), use a multiple theoretic approach as no single theory adequately addresses critical application issues. Consequently, the authors use elements from Old Institutional Economics (OIE), Design theory, Information economics, Agency and Constructivist Learning theories to introduce a model providing dynamic CI capabilities in an American factory setting. This is not to deny that different theories may explain the same phenomena, as is the case in this study, (Tolbert and Zucker, 1996) but that some may act as more informative prescriptions in the context of application. This is only a pilot study with all the difficulties and ambiguities of such. It’s value will be truly determined by future expansion and application of its insights.