Abstract
Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is the leading approach in organizational diagnosis. This approach is largely based on the analysis of correlations (e.g., Multivariate Analysis (MANOVA)), which constitutes the main source of information to establish the causes of dysfunction and to indicate possible interventions to restore good functioning. In this paper, we argue that causal mechanisms (CMs) should also be integrated into LSS for organizational diagnosis (OD). We borrow the concept of CM from the field of causality in the sciences. CMs have the potential to improve diagnostic practice because they reveal the structure and the functioning of an organization, and thus indicate more clearly how to intervene in order to restore good functioning. While the LSS movement has been enormously successful in advancing our diagnostic practices, further improvement is possible once causal mechanisms are brought into the picture.
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Ettema, R., Russo, F., Huysmans, P. (2013). Explaining with Mechanisms and Its Impact on Organisational Diagnosis. In: Proper, H.A., Aveiro, D., Gaaloul, K. (eds) Advances in Enterprise Engineering VII. EEWC 2013. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 146. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38117-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38117-1_5
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