Exploring lean culture: organisational psychology insights and relevance from a systematic literature review

Purpose The current research aims to explore the lean culture (LC) concept, particularly from the organisational psychology (OPS) perspective and justify its relevance by revealing its relationships with other related organisational concepts reported in the academic literature. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings identified a total of 522 articles, published between 2014 and 2024. It was collected from four databases: Emerald Online, EBSCO, OpenAIRE and Google Scholar. Finally, 63 articles were included for thematic and relational analysis to answer research questions. Findings The thematic analysis identified the following OPS concepts meaningfully connected to LC: motivation, engagement, empowerment, involvement, teamwork, training and learning, mutual respect, trust, consistency and commitments of leadership, management and employees. The study also revealed that LC directly impacts several organisational concepts, including lean management and manufacturing implementation, management, leadership, organisational culture, academic corruption, positive organisational politics, corporate and supply chain competitiveness and green practices. Additionally, LC positively moderates and mediates the relationship between organisational concepts like lean practice, sustainable performance and operational excellence. These relationships justify the relevance of LC in organisations. Originality/value It is hoped that this research will contribute to a deeper understanding of LC by exploring its connection with OPS concepts and analysing its relevance concerning other organisational concepts.