Commitment in an improvement process - A case study of Jotun West Europe region

Abstract

The field of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and implementation processes has been widely researched. Few have; however, in a bachelor thesis gained access to a comprehensive pre-study about implementing an ERP system in an organization and followed the same organization’s way to an improvement project. The purpose of the thesis is to map out and evaluate the actions taken by the project leaders of this improvement project in order to create commitment to the improvement process. We investigate our research question from a lean production theory perspective and have identified a set of key factors that are critical when creating commitment in an improvement process according to theory. Thenceforth we have used these key factors in our empirical data gathering and in our analysis as well. Our empirical data consists of five interviews; three of the interview objects are working as Customer Service Departments Managers (anonymous) and two are project leaders (Carol & Angel). Our findings show that it is problematic to analyze actions in isolation, since they are all related to and dependent on one another. Still, some factors are found to be more frequently highlighted and more clearly correlated than others in the certain case of Jotun Group. Those factors are; perceived influence, cross-country information sharing and concrete goal settings. We believe this thesis to bring understanding about the practical case of Jotun and how managers’ actions influence the employees’ commitment.