Both TQM and Lean are said to rest on a number of values that in turn are said to be the building blocks of the organizational culture needed to successfully apply TQM or Lean in an organization. The reason why applying Lean or TQM fail is frequently explained by the lack of focusing on values and culture and instead too big focus on tools and methods. In this context, leadership is often mentioned as one if the main keys to change the organizational culture as the leaders in organizations are the bearer of values. There is also a strong connection between values held and behaviors shown by the leaders and the co-workers in the organization. So the question arises; how come it´s so hard to make the change in leadership behaviors and by that the organizational culture? At the same time, there are leaders succeeding with consciously changing the culture and the values held by the co-workers. What can we learn from such a leaders that have succeeded in changing an exciting culture in an organization?
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the values held by and the ways of working used by a top leader (COO) with the aim to change the organizational culture.
Methodology/approach – The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a successful Lean company was interviewed in order to identify the managers´ values as well as ways of working. A developed interview guide was used to get an understanding of the values the leader had and to identify “other” softer aspects of his leadership. The results from the study was analyzed by the researchers, first by each researcher individually, then in workshops as a group.
Findings – The results show that the COO appears to have an understanding about the connection between values and behaviors something shown by the close connection between the identified ways of working and values. The result also shows ways of working to achieve a cultural change, were the use of ROFO can be seen as a driving force for this. The COO displays a leadership and a value-base much in line with Lean leadership and value-base.Practical implications – The presented results can be used by leaders in different types of organization in their work with developing the culture and leadership.