Creating a culture for sustainability and quality–a lean-inspired way of working

Abstract

Even though much research has been carried out regarding various sustainability issues, the research into cultural aspects of sustainability and quality is very limited. The purpose of this study is to explore the culture of an award-winning company that is successfully working with sustainability and quality. The ambition is to contribute to the development of sustainable quality management. In order to identify and describe their ways of working, a case study was carried out at Sky Factory, an award-winning innovative manufacturing company which utilises Lean principles. In-depth interviews were performed with the CEO and a number of employees focusing on exploring their way of working as well as their value base, attitudes and practices regarding quality and sustainability. The data collection also included document studies and observation. The research was inductive, based on the Grounded Theory methodology and the data was analysed with the constant comparative technique. The analysis revealed a set of categories in the form of dimensions which, combined with theory, resulted in a tentative framework. One limitation is that the study only included a single company, which may limit the possibilities for generalisation. Nonetheless, the dimensions that were identified and the framework that integrates them should be useful as a vantage point for further research.