Hello all,

I’m Musli, a PhD student at the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), Massey University (BPIR.com’s founding organisation). I’m conducting a survey on business improvement initiatives. This survey is part of my doctoral study, which is supervised by Dr. Robin Mann and Dr. Nigel Grigg.

As you know, there are numerous business improvement initiatives that can be used by organisations to improve quality, productivity and sustainability towards achieving excellence. The initiatives can be approaches, systems, tools and/or techniques, such as, Six Sigma, Lean, ISO9000, ISO14000, Business Process Reengineering, and Benchmarking. The right initiatives to be used may vary depending on several factors, for instance, the current maturity level of the organisation, organisation type and size, and the capabilities and responsibilities of the workforce. Moreover, there is also a lack of clear understanding by people regarding when, where and how to implement the initiatives. In order to help organisations to select suitable initiatives according to the contexts, this survey attempts to identify where the main business improvement initiatives should be used according to the following areas: leadership and social responsibilities, strategy and policy, customers, processes, workforce, and, partnerships and resources.

All practitioners, managers, executives, consultants and/or academicians who have a good understanding and experience on business improvement initiatives are invited to complete the on-line survey - click on link below:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/140713/initiative

I hope you can participate. If you have completed the questionnaire and request form, you will be sent a copy of the survey findings through email, once it is ready.

Please complete the survey by 28th of February 2010. For further details, please refer to the front page of survey instrument

Your kind participation would be much appreciated. Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Musli Mohammad
PhD Student
Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER)

There is some exciting research going on at the COER (Centre of Organisational Excellence Research) at the moment.

Past research shows that culture plays a key role in sustaining continuous improvement in organisations. Continuous improvement, in turn, is often viewed as critical for organisational efficiency and waste reduction. However, the effect of culture in the specific context is less well understood. Several levels of culture such as the national culture, corporate culture and organisational sub-cultures, are present simultaneously. Which ones are important, and under what conditions do they become important? What needs to happen to ensure that the existing cultural diversity results in continuous improvement? Which role does – and, in fact, can – management and organisational leadership play?

This doctoral research is seeking answers to these questions using a multiple-case methodology. For participating organisations, this presents an opportunity to benefit from cutting-edge research and at the same time help advance the scientific understanding.

Participation in the study is free of charge. If you are interested in having your organisation participate, please get in touch with me for further information - either by email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or by leaving a comment.

Jürgen ‘Phil’ Wagner
PhD Student
Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER)
Massey University