Standardization can be good for exploration: a social capital view of the productivity dilemma in operational teams

Abstract

Process Management Programs (PMPs) rely heavily on the standardization of activities to improve organizational efficiency and reliability. Standardization, however, can lead to rigidity and inertia, which may eventually inhibit exploration and innovation. While scholars have provided cognitive and routine-based arguments to cope with this dilemma, the fact that standardization is a social process that requires collaboration between individuals has been overlooked. In this paper, we propose that standardization can improve a team’s social capital and thereby facilitate the activities that enable exploration. Specifically, we hypothesize that standardization relates positively to external communication, psychological safety, and the perception of support for innovation in operational teams. These three social capital attributes mediate the relationship between standardization and exploration. We tested this multilevel mediation model by analysing 431 members of 62 operational teams in a large multinational mining company that had recently implemented a Process Management Program (Lean Management). Our multilevel mediation results confirmed that standardisation promoted exploration by enhancing the teams’ social capital. For robustness we tested our model with a second survey of 450 workers of different companies and obtained similar results. Therefore, we propose that the productivity dilemma can be balanced by improving operational teams’ social capital.

Keywords:

• Standardization
• exploration
• social capital
• lean management
• operational teams productivity dilemma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolina I. Rojas

Carolina I. Rojas is an assistant professor of Industrial Engineering at the Universidad Católica del Norte de Chile (UCN). She works in the areas of operation and production management and innovation. She is an industrial engineer from UCN and holds a MSc. in Management from the University of Glasgow. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research primarily focuses on operational improvement, innovation and team dynamics.

Julio A. Pertuze

Julio A. Pertuze is an assistant professor at the Industrial and Engineering Systems Department of the School of Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His main lines of research are technology management, and science, technology and innovation policies. Dr. Pertuze holds a MSc. In Technology and Policy and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He won the University Distinguished Teaching award (2017) and has a MOOC in Coursera on the Management of Effective Organizations, in Spanish, with more than 55.000 learners. At a professional level, Dr. Pertuze has been a board member of the National Science and Technology Agency (2019) and currently is on-leave serving as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy of Chile (2020–2021).

Amanda J. Williamson

Amanda J. Williamson is a lecturer in strategy and innovation at Waikato Management School, the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has published multiple articles in a top-ranked journal in business and is the Principal Investigator of three global research collaborations. Her research primarily focuses on the health of entrepreneurs and draws on innovative research methods like natural language processing and artificial intelligence. Dr. Williamson has been celebrated for teaching excellence, recognized for research impact and is the recipient of international research funding.

Antoine Gilbert-saad

Julio A. Pertuze is an assistant professor at the Industrial and Engineering Systems Department of the School of Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His main lines of research are technology management, and science, technology and innovation policies. Dr. Pertuze holds a MSc. In Technology and Policy and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He won the University Distinguished Teaching award (2017) and has a MOOC in Coursera on the Management of Effective Organizations, in Spanish, with more than 55.000 learners. At a professional level, Dr. Pertuze has been a board member of the National Science and Technology Agency (2019) and currently is on-leave serving as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy of Chile (2020–2021).

Luis F. Alarcón

Antoine Gilbert-Saad is a Lecturer in and convenor for Strategic Management at the Waikato Management School of the University of Waikato. His areas of interest are strategic decision-making and entrepreneurship. His research focuses on the use of heuristics and other forms of non-analytical approaches to decision-making in highly uncertain contexts.

Luis F. Alarcón is a professor of Civil Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is a civil engineer from the Universidad Católica de Chile and MS, MEng and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He works in the areas of project risk modelling, strategic planning in construction, lean construction and production management. He has published several books and numerous research papers in diverse areas of project management and lean construction. He is currently the director of the Production Management Centre (GEPUC) of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and an active member of editorial boards and reviewer of international journals. Also has been a visiting professor at The Ohio State University, USA, at Salford University, UK and the Shimizu Visiting Professor, at Stanford University, US.