Conclusion
Leadership has been identified as a critical success factor of Lean implementation. The purpose of the present study was to identify what is the impact of leadership style on the success of Lean implementation, and find out the most important leader’ attributes that facilitate LM implementation. To accomplish that goal, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 65 Portuguese companies that have implemented LM. The results suggest that empowering leadership has a positive impact in the success of Lean implementation (measured through the implementation of Lean practices). Therefore, we can recommend to companies that are thinking about implementing Lean, to pay attention to the attitudes of the leaders associated to this style: “Delegation of authority,” “accountability,” “self-directed decision making,” “information sharing,” “skill development,” and “coaching for innovative performance.” When the Lean implementation success was measured through the increase of market share, the directive leadership showed a negative impact. Consequently, we suggest to companies taking into consideration the dimensions of this directive style (assigned goals, and instruction and command). Moreover, we identified that none of the leadership style proved to be dominant. This seems to suggest that it is the power of leadership that influences LM, instead of the power of leadership style. Accordingly, when testing separately which leader’s attributes are more important in the success of Lean implementation, several dimensions exhibited statistical significance: “Individualized consideration,” “information sharing,” “skill development,” “intellectual stimulation,” “assigned goals” and “self-directed decision making.” Consequently, organizations that are in the beginning of the LM implementation process should be aware of the importance of leadership and, more than just adopting a single style, adopt attitudes related to these attributes.
