Organisational culture and the implementation of Six Sigma in Southern China

Abstract

Six Sigma has become increasingly common in China, where the typical management practices are substantially different from those in the US, the original location of Six Sigma. Based upon existing organisational change research, this raises questions as to whether the existing management culture in Chinese organisations influences the success of Six Sigma implementations. This paper demonstrates that the existing organisational culture does have an influence upon Six Sigma implementation within China. In particular, organisations with a Supportive Culture appear more likely to report success, while organisations with an Innovation Culture surprisingly appear to experience difficulties implementing Six Sigma. Additionally, having clear objectives at the start of the project is critical to ultimate Six Sigma implementation success.

Keywords:

• Six Sigma
• organisational change
• organisational culture
• quality management