A model of the Kaizen organizational culture shaping process in the company

Research background and purpose Kaizen is a management method that has been known around the world for more than 40 years. As reported by the results of various studies, it is still relevant and in practice can bring a lot of benefits to a company, provided, howewer, that it is applied correctly. One of the basic conditions for the successful application of Kaizen is a cultural change towards a culture conducive to the application of Kaizen.Therefore the main this article purpose is to present a model of the process of successfully creating a Kaizen organizational culture developed based on an extensive study of the literature on the subject and the results of empirical research. Design/methodology/approach In addition to literature studies, the research was conducted in manufacturing companies in Poland between 2022 and 2024 using quantitative methods (a convenience sample of 54 large and medium-sized manufacturing and service companies) and a case study method (four large manufacturing companies in the automotive, medical and aerospace industries). Findings As a result of the research procedure, a model of the process of creating Kazien's organizational culture was developed, along with an indication of more than twenty methods of cultural change that can be used in this process. Value added and limitations The main added value of the survey results is knowledge, which, in addition to its academic value, in practice can be of great help to those interested in the topic. On the other hand, the main limitation of the survey may be the survey sample, conveniently selected and consisting mainly of manufacturing companies, which may affect the representativeness of the survey results and their limitation to the group of surveyed companies only. Therefore, in the future, author intend to continuing the survey, the to reduce these limitations.