A critical evaluation of organizational readiness for continuous improvement within a UK public utility company

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the research reported here was to develop practical tools to assess organizational readiness prior to the implementation of a continuous improvement (CI) initiative in a public sector environment. A case study approach was used, which focused on a UK public utility company. The data was collected through a survey and the results were used to provide practical measures of readiness and inform the development of the initiative. The research synthesizes and builds on the existing literature in the areas of success, failure and readiness factors to develop a framework for the assessment of readiness for organizations undertaking CI initiatives.

IMPACT

This paper presents a practical approach to assessing organizational readiness in order to identify areas of strength that can be used as the cornerstones of a CI initiative, as well as areas that would benefit from further development prior to implementation. Adopting this approach should increase the likelihood of success and sustainability of initiatives. Practitioners can reflect on the impact of the case study and apply similar approaches to understanding their own organization with the purpose of maximizing impact and sustainability of CI initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuous improvement
• public management
• public sector
• readiness factors
• success factors
• sustainable initiatives
• utility companies

Disclosure statement

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