ESRC and Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe Funded PhD in Business: Continuous Improvement Training and Accreditation, Innovative Work Behaviour, and the ‘Kata’ approach to change: Building Sustainable CI organizations

Applications are invited for one prestigious (1+3 or +3) full-time ESRC PhD Studentship to be based in Cardiff Business School, to begin late-September 2016. The award is generously supported by the ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Centre and Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe (Gyrus Medical Limited), St Mellons, Cardiff.

This award is available on either a 1+3 or +3 basis. A 1+3 studentship provides funding for four years, completing the MSc Social Science Research Methods in year one, followed by the three-year PhD phase. A +3 studentship provides funding for three years only, and assumes that the applicant will already have completed research methods training via, or equivalent to, an ESRC-recognised MSc degree (please see ESRC guidance on this).

One studentship is available starting on September 2016.

Project title: Continuous Improvement Training and Accreditation, Innovative Work Behaviour, and the ‘Kata’ approach to change: Building Sustainable CI organizations

Innovation is central to organisational efficiency, and continuous improvement (CI) has been shown to be central to effective innovation in companies (Bessant, 1997). While organisations globally spend vast amounts each year on CI education and training, not enough are satisfied with its effectiveness (Lu and Betts, 2011). Lack of standards in certification risks the credibility of CI programs among industry and practitioner communities (Setter, 2010).

Comparing the requirements of different CI certifications, there are wide variations in criteria used (Snee, 2010; Marx, 2008), in areas such as training time, assessment methods, project requirement, and inclusion of financial savings. This has made it difficult for industry to assess the quality of such training programs and their impact on developing more innovative work behaviour (IWB) of individual/groups/ organizations (Janssen, 2000). IWB-oriented organizations are characterised by a high degree of idea generation, idea promotion, idea implementation and change.

It is important to understand the relationship between investing in CI training and accreditation (CITA) and changing habits, mind-sets and behaviours of employees to improve continuously i.e. achieve CI implementation, termed as ‘Kata’ in Japan (Rother, 2010). Within this research, attention will be paid to studying the relationship between CITA and the Kata approach for developing more IWB and achieving CI. The research will address the following questions:

• How variation in CITA impacts on developing IWB in organisations;


• How the ‘Kata’ approach differs from traditional CITA approaches to developing more innovative behaviour;


• What is the relationship between the Kata approach and IWB in organisations?

Eligibility

Academic criteria: Candidates should have an excellent academic background, holding a 1st or Upper 2nd Class undergraduate degree, and preferably also a Masters degree in a relevant subject with a score of at least 65%.

Residency: For further details on residency, please visit: http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/funding/R2780.html

Additional Funding Information: This studentship consists of full UK/EU tuition fees at UK/EU rate, as well as a Doctoral Stipend matching UK Research Council National Minimum £14,296 p.a. for 2016/17.

One studentship is very generously funded by the ESRC and Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe.

Additional funding of the value £750 p.a as part of a ESRC Research Training Support Grant for three years (PhD phase only).