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The purpose of this paper is to describe a readiness programme designed to increase employees’ awareness of order and cleanliness as a way of building the necessary foundation for implementing and sustaining continuous improvement processes. In this paper, the authors propose a new readiness programme based on the principles of 5S, with the aim of strengthening employees’ motivation and involvement prior to 5S being implemented.

The research is based on case study methodology, followed by a programme of four structured activities. The validity of the programme is shown through the implementation of the activities in two different organizations.

The readiness programme was applied before 5S was successfully implemented. The degree of awareness and motivation of the programme participants improved as a result of these activities. Moreover, the activities increased people’s motivation to participate in improvement activities.

Applying a readiness programme before implementing 5S can help organizations to achieve and sustain improvement activities, thus increasing worker commitment and motivation.

Companies use continuous improvement (CI) as a strategy to achieve business excellence and innovation. Yet CI initiatives fail mostly due to a lack of employee engagement. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Based on the CI literature and the technology acceptance model (TAM), a comprehensive model called continuous improvement acceptance mode (CIAM) was developed to understand the main organisational antecedents that predict employee intention to participate in CI. The CIAM is based on structural equation modelling using partial least squares and it was validated in a large manufacturing plant in Europe.

Emulating the findings of the TAM, this study shows that employee intention to participate can be predicted by two variables called ease of participating and usefulness of participating. The CIAM then relates these constructs with relevant CI enablers found in the CI literature.

The CIAM could help academics and practitioners to better understand employee participation in CI activities, allowing CI systems to be better designed and achieve long-term sustainability.

The CIAM presents new variables and interactions that help to understand employee participation in CI activities. Some of these variables and interactions have received scant attention in the CI literature and thus they are worth investigating in greater depth in the future.

Teamwork is one of the most powerful tools to ensure success across any activity. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that actively contribute to the effectiveness of teams. This research looks at two different types of teams: care delivery teams representing healthcare and improvement teams representing the manufacturing industry. The aim is to provide greater knowledge about the application of team work factors in different environments.

Qualitative interviews about teamwork factors were conducted with 17 leaders of teams from healthcare and 22 leaders from manufacturing industries. The responses were categorized into different levels according to the application of each factor. Then, the factors were analyzed to draw conclusions about the different approaches to teamwork and their application.

Most of the factors analyzed are highly applied in both sectors. However, we found significant differences between hospitals and the manufacturing industry when it comes to factors such as strategies, feedback on results, leadership, participation and communication.

Measuring each factor in two different sectors (healthcare and industry) has yielded noteworthy findings and the best practices for their implementation.

Since the field of healthcare was a latecomer to the quality movement, knowledge transfer has generally flowed in one direction, from industry to healthcare. However, organisations can also be enriched by healthcare. In particular, this paper aims to show industry that important lessons can be learned regarding how teamwork is generally managed within healthcare.

To identify the useful lessons that healthcare can teach industry, the authors started with a brainstorming session among the members of the research team to pin‐point the lessons based on their experience with healthcare and industrial environments. Afterwards, an exhaustive review of the relevant literature from the last ten years was carried out.

Industrial organisations need to develop teamwork frameworks focused on involving every employee in cross‐disciplinary, empowered and trained teams. Moreover, from a team perspective, special care must be shown when defining clear roles, focusing on end clients, formulating shared objectives and facilitating internal communications.

The ten lessons from healthcare teamwork best practices believed to be the most important are given in the paper. Although some of these lessons may not be completely new concepts for industrial organisations, the paper shows how healthcare develops, spreads and applies these concepts in the real world.

The paper summarises, in ten useful lessons for organisations, healthcare's best teamwork practices in the literature.

This research paper aims to explore how intranet mechanisms for knowledge transfer in a multinational automotive company can be improved with the inclusion of a human interface, specifically a resident engineer. A resident engineer is an assembly line employee who spends the majority of their time in the Advanced Engineering Center, which aims to improve knowledge transfer through face‐to‐face interaction.

A multinational automotive company was selected for the study. Six years of data containing all product modifications were analyzed.

The paper concludes that electronic knowledge transfer can be significantly improved when resident engineers physically interact with the Advanced Engineering Center. Intranet knowledge transfer alone cannot overcome the considerable handicap involved in knowledge assimilation.

For companies with Advanced Engineering Centers located far from assembly‐line plants, the creation of specific human mechanisms to explain the knowledge generated and to reduce approval time is indispensable.

This research paper features a complete case study from a multinational automotive company with more than 800 analyzed modifications.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to evaluate the importance of the factors reported in the literature as enablers of Continuous Improvement (CI) programmes and to determine the perception of managers of different companies in the Basque Country and Navarre (Spain) regarding the relevance of these factors to their improvement programmes.

In total, 15 elements have been considered to be key issues for the sustainability of CI programmes. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 36 companies in order to assess how the companies value the factors and how the factors are applied and measured.

The findings regarding the application and evaluation of such factors have revealed that companies are focused on the agents associated with the achievement of results. Other factors, such as management commitment or the promotion of team working, are highly scored and applied, but few companies evaluate them or take actions to improve their application.

This paper analyzes the application of some factors considered to be enablers or key factors for the sustainability of continuous improvement systems. Furthermore, it examines the mechanisms or indicators which are used by some companies to measure the application of those factors.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between accuracy and conscientiousness among people working in a tidy/messy work environment.

A laboratory experiment was conducted, where participants performing a simple task in a highly controlled environment were sorted into two different treatments, a tidy or a messy work environment.

The results of this study suggest that conscientious people commit more errors in a messy environment than in a tidy environment. Therefore, one of the most significant findings to emerge from this study is that a messy environment could be detrimental to the accuracy of conscientious people.

This study is limited in several respects. First of all, the sample is not large, with 80 participants; some variables, such us IQ levels, fatigue levels, caffeine consumption, etc. were not controlled for. Third, the task was restricted to inputting data into a computer.

Taken together, these findings suggest the need to promote excellence in work environment tidiness, because highly conscientious employees will work with greater accuracy, while the less conscientious will not be affected. Therefore, overall, accuracy will be better. Consequently, the managers of the organization should be committed to defining policies about high standards of tidiness in the workplace environment.

This is the first study to provide evidence of the moderation of the tidy/messy work environment in the relationship between conscientiousness and human accuracy. The present study sheds light on the impact of messy work environment on accuracy of high conscientious people, inducing them to work in a defective way.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The European Union is to consider imposing legally enforceable quotas for women on corporate boards. Is such positive discrimination a necessary step to ensure that boardroom composition better reflects society as a whole? Or is it demeaning and counter‐productive? There are no easy answers to a question which is not confined to European businesses.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

We are reminded often enough that knowledge is power. This mantra is particularly significant where business organizations are concerned. Economic conditions remain tough and competition is becoming ever more intense. As a result, the ability to create new knowledge is vital to the well‐being of any company.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to understand women’s approaches to acquiring financial and other resources is essential for closing the entrepreneurship gender gap. In nearly 40% of economies, women’s early-stage entrepreneurial activity is half or less than half of that of men’s.

Even when there is extensive literature on female entrepreneurs, the authors review the findings through a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-1)9 crisis lens, trying to find new perspectives and solutions. With the approach of a systematic review of 4,520 publications on financing topics related to female entrepreneurs, various sources of financing available to female entrepreneurs are considered: bootstrapping, banks, business angels, venture capital and crowdfunding.

Identifying potential gender bias both on the supply and the demand side of financing, this research highlights new directions in encouraging female entrepreneurship and gives guidelines to public organisations on how to foster advanced forms of financing for female entrepreneurs in COVID-19 times.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge for economies and companies. Female entrepreneurs are the ones who have been hit harder, as they overcome pre-existing barriers, such as lack of access to finance, lack of networks and mentors and gendered priorities, among others. Without ensuring gender policies to counter these incremental negative effects, the authors face the risk of widening the gender gap.

Regarding previous systematic reviews of literature, this paper focusses on a specific challenge, how women entrepreneurs finance their activity, with a double vision: supply and demand of money.