Organizational culture and Industry 4.0 design principles: an empirical study on their relationship

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between organizational culture (OC) profiles and the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) design principles. We surveyed 153 middle and senior managers from Brazil and India, whose manufacturing companies have been implementing I4.0. Participants provided answers regarding the perceived OC characteristics that prevail in their companies, which were assessed based on the Competing Values Framework. We also collected data on the adoption levels of I4.0 design principles, whose analysis was conducted through the utilization of multivariate data analysis techniques. Our results indicated that, depending on the I4.0 design principle, OC profiles (Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy) may either corroborate or impair its adoption, allowing the verification of the hypothesized relationships. The understanding of the association between OC profiles and I4.0 design principles provides practitioners with arguments to identify possible problems during their digital transformation. As changes in OC require significant efforts and are usually time-consuming, companies that can anticipate those issues might face a smoother transition towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution, hence, obtaining competitive advantages.

Keywords:

• Organizational culture
• Industry 4.0
• Design principles
• empirical study

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guilherme Luz Tortorella

Guilherme Luz Tortorella has more than 12 years of experience as a Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement Manager in the automotive industry, having worked in sites from Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, the UK and USA. Additionally, he has worked as an Industry Consultant for 7 years. With more than 200 journal articles published, 2 books and 15 book chapters, his research is mainly focussed on Operations Management, more specifically on Lean Management, Industry 4.0, and Supply Chain Management. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Lean Systems, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Production Journal, and Operations Management Research Journal.

Anupama Prashar

Anupama Prashar is an Associate Professor of the Management Development Institute at Gurgan, India. She holds a PhD (Management), Punjabi University, India, 2012, and is a Lean Six Sigma, Master Black Belt Certification, Indian Statistical Institute, 2015. She is a winner of Research Excellence Award, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India, 2018, Best Research Paper Award, FORE International Operations Conference, India, 2015, University Rank Holder, Bachelor of Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Punjab Technical University, India, 2000. Reviewer for scientific and scholarly journals (27 reviews for 9 international journals). Member of doctoral thesis examination committee, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, 2019.

Guido Carim Junior

Guido Carim Junior is passionate about anything involving aviation. He started his career as a flight instructor then became an Embraer 190/95 First officer at Azul Airlines, Brazil. He is a senior lecturer at Griffith University since 2008.

Sherif Mostafa

Sherif Mostafa is the Program Director of Bachelor of Construction Management (Hons) at Griffith University. Sherif is a professional academic with over 10 years of industry experience delivering engineering projects. He has worked in positions including consulting engineer, and project and planning engineer in residential and commercial buildings, asset maintenance and project management. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), Scrum Master (CSM), a chartered engineer (CPEng NER), RPEQ and APEC EngineerIntPE (Aus). Through his volunteer roles with the Project Management Institute (PMI) (Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and Adelaide Chapters) and PrefabAUS in Melbourne and Adelaide, Sherif contributes to the construction and project management professions. Sherif completed his PhD in Construction Engineering Management from the University of South Australia. He has been working in the higher education industry, where he contributes to directing, coordinating, researching and teaching construction and project management and engineering management courses. Sherif’s research portfolio comprises PhD thesis supervisions and conducting industrial and consulting research projects. He has an outstanding track record of high-quality publications. Moreover, he actively initiates research ideas that have attracted industry professionals, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary partners.

Alistair Barros

Alistair Barros is Head of School and Academic Program Leader of Service Science at QUT’s School of Information Systems at the Faculty of Science, QUT. He has a PhD from the University of Queensland and ICT experience across academic and industry organizations, including being Global Research Leader at SAP AG.

Rui M. Lima

Rui M. Lima is an Associate Professor of the Department of Production and Systems, School of Engineering of University of Minho, Portugal. His current professional activity is centred on teaching and/or researching in Industrial Engineering and Management, mainly in the following areas: Production Management; Lean and Agile Project Management; Lean Services; Lean Production Systems; Engineering Education; Project-Based Learning (PBL); University-Business Cooperation (UBC). He is currently involved in international projects with universities of eight different countries from Europe, Asia and South America. He has more than 120 publications in journals, conferences and book chapters. He have been involved in editorial work in Ind. Engineering and Engineering Education journals.

Peter Hines

Peter Hines is a world-renowned academic, practitioner, Lean thought leader, multiple Shingo Award-winning author, and Senior Certified Shingo Facilitator. Peter is Chairman and Co-Founder of S A Partners (www.sapartners.com), a leading global lean excellence consultancy firm and licenced Shingo Institute affiliate (shingo.org). Peter was Co-founder and Co-director of Cardiff University’s Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), and co-director of the world’s first Lean Masters programme at Cardiff University. He is now a Visiting Professor at the WIT Business School, and is specifically working with Darrin Taylor and Aidan Walsh, Co-Directors of the WIT Lean Enterprise Excellence Group, to help create and sustain world class performance in Irish business. The focus is on disseminating the latest thinking in Lean and the Shingo approach through short courses, the Lean Practice Masters degree, and the PhD programme.