Operators’ work situation - a key to successful lean organizations

Other conference contribution, 2020

The purpose is to explore operators’ social and technical work situation, and how successful lean organizations fulfil operators’ need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. A framework of operators’ work situation is structured into social and technical systems. A model is developed and extends the basic self-determination theory model by exploring and proposing how the technical dimensions directly and indirectly impact work performance and health. The findings show that the social dimensions have a strong impact on the work situation and thus, a key to succeed with lean organizations is to invest time in the social dimensions beyond the technical dimensions.