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Sustainable development of a suggestion system: Factors influencing improvement activities in a confectionary company
Author(s) -
Rapp Cecilia,
Eklund Jörgen
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing and service industries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.408
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1520-6564
pISSN - 1090-8471
DOI - 10.1002/hfm.20064
Subject(s) - hum , marketing , work (physics) , sustainability , business , reward system , euros , employee development , psychology , public relations , engineering , political science , mechanical engineering , art , ecology , philosophy , performance art , humanities , psychotherapist , biology , art history
Although the use of continuous improvement (CI) is widespread today, many organizations face problems maintaining high and sustained employee involvement in such programs. The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing employee involvement in submitting suggestions within a suggestion system in a Swedish production company. The company had maintained a successful suggestion system for about 10 years. The study builds on a database containing all the suggestions submitted (2343 in number) within the suggestion system. The following factors were identified to influence employee involvement in submitting suggestions and hence the sustainability of the suggestion system as well: (a) Situations when the employees had a personal benefit from submitting suggestions, e.g., concerning their own work environment, contributed to long‐term sustainability of the system; (b) campaigns emphasizing different themes encouraged employees to become more active within the suggestion system; (c) employees having some of their suggestions rejected were more active in submitting suggestions than employees having most suggestions rejected or accepted; (d) a high monetary reward (80 euros and above) was not found favorable for submitting new suggestions, compared to lower rewards; (e) increased support of group suggestions contributed to a sustained and high level of activity of the suggestion system. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 17: 79–94, 2007.