The Potential Effectiveness of Lean 5S Tool in Promoting Employee Performance in the Ministry of Finance, West Bank, Palestine رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify the potential effectiveness of 5S practices pertaining to employees’ performance in the Ministry of Finance, Ramallah -West Bank. To that end, the researcher has measured the employees’ readiness rate for implementing the 5S practices, the role of employees’ involvement in implementing the 5S practices, the employees’ awareness of implementing the 5S practices and the effect of a clean workplace environment. The researcher has used a mixed-method approach. Data were collected through the use of quantitative and qualitative methods. For data obtained through the quantitative method, the hypotheses of this study were tested and analyzed, using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient test; Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. Results showed that there was a significant correlation between employees’ performance and their readiness to implement the 5S practices, employees’ desire of contributions (involvement in) to implementation of the 5S practices, employees’ awareness of implementing the 5S practices, and a clean workplace environment. In contrast, the qualitative data of the study was obtained through unstructured interviews. Findings from this study showed that the Ministry of Finance employees’ had a high level of readiness and awareness of implementing the 5S practices. The employees’ desire of involvement and top management’s role also appeared to be significant elements in driving the successful implementation of the 5S program. Furthermore, the clean workplace environments played an important role in enhancing employees’ performance. In addition, the study findings also indicated that the general accountant, payroll and budget departments VI were serious in following 5S practices in the workplace compared to other departments: Customs and Tax, Cash, Audit, IT, Accounts and Administration & Finance. The consistency of most findings with past studies and related theories or quality models showed that 5S practices did play an effective role in influencing the employees’ performance. Moreover, most employees’ agreed that the 5S practices were an effective technique that could improve housekeeping, environmental and employees’ performance, health and safety standards in their workplaces. However, awareness and readiness of the employees were found to be a key factor in determining the success or failure of implementing the 5S program. Finally, the researcher recommends that government institutions develop their operations through lean thinking. This aims at adopting lean thinking and its effect on optimizing the performance of employees’ and public institutions.