The role of executive problem solving in knowledge accumulation and manufacturing improvements

• Author: Rajiv Nag,Yusen Xia,Adrian S. Choo
• Published date: 01 May 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2015.03.001
• Date: 01 May 2015

Journal of Operations Management 36 (2015) 63–74

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Operations Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jom

The role of executive problem solving in knowledge accumulation and

manufacturing improvements

Adrian S. Chooa,∗, Rajiv Nag b, Yusen Xiaa,1

aDepartment of Managerial Sciences, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, 35 Broad Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA

bDepartment of Management, Lebow College of Business, Drexel University, 3220 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

article info

Article history:

Received 30 July 2014

Received in revised form 26 February 2015

Accepted 1 March 2015

Available online 11 March 2015

Accepted by Daniel R Guide

Keywords:

Manufacturing improvements

Problem-solving orientation

Knowledge stocks

abstract

This study investigates how strategic leaders influence knowledge stocks and manufacturing improve-

ments in firms. In doing so, we identify two related but distinct problem-solving orientations

among senior executives. The first orientation uses short-term remedies to control and contain the

impact of a problem, which we label as symptomatic problem solving (SPS). The other orienta-

tion addresses a problem situation with the objective of developing new understanding and skills,

and we label it as generative problem solving (GPS). We test our theoretical framework using two

waves of survey data from a sample of metal casting manufacturers (metal foundries) in the United

States. Our analysis shows that GPS positively affects both internal and external knowledge stocks, while

SPS negatively influences internal knowledge stock. Knowledge stocks, in turn, facilitate incremental

and radical manufacturing improvements. Our results suggest that the two executive problem-solving

orientations can potentially counteract each other in enhancing and depreciating knowledge stocks,

and subsequently affect a manufacturer’s ability to attain improvements both in the short and

long terms

Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction

Leadership is central to manufacturing improvements (e.g.,

Anderson et al., 1994; Deming, 1986; Flynn and Saladin, 2001;

Schroeder et al., 2008; Zu et al., 2008), which involve both incre-

mental and breakthrough changes in performance (Juran and De

Feo, 2010: p. 139). Although improvements can take place at all lev-

els of an organization, upper management defines the system and

culture, selects goals and projects, and assigns valuable resources

for achieving improvements within an organization (Juran, 1989;

Juran and Gryna, 1988; Waldman et al., 1998). Underlying improve-

ments are the knowledge-based resources and problem-solving

activities driven by the firm’s leadership (Linderman et al., 2010).

As top management provides leadership to a firm, how execu-

tives approach and respond to problems can significantly impact

the trajectory of manufacturing improvements in the firm. Inap-

propriate understanding of problems by executives can limit and

∗Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 404 413 7534; fax: +1 404 413 7571.

E-mail addresses: achoo@gsu.edu (A.S. Choo), rn362@drexel.edu (R. Nag),

ysxia@gsu.edu (Y. Xia).

1Tel.: +1 404 413 7556; fax: +1 404 413 7571.

curtail how companies come up with improvements and innova-

tions over time (e.g., Tripsas and Gavetti, 2000). Failures in quality

and process improvement are often traceable to gaps between

top management’s rhetoric about improvement and actual imple-

mentations (Beer, 2003; Zbaracki, 1998). While it is important to

understand the nature and pattern of variations in executive prob-

lem solving, little research has looked at precisely how executive

problem-solving orientations impact a firm’s ability to attain and

sustain manufacturing improvements.

By executive problem-solving orientation, we refer to top

management’s approach, rooted in basic cognitive processes, of

transforming a given situation to a desired state (cf. Simon, 1999:

p. 674). Suppose upper management’s exclusive mode of solving

problems is to control2and to restore a given situation to its original

working state as quickly as possible. Such problem-solving orienta-

tionmay trickle down the organization in a way that de-emphasizes

the need for learning and knowledge accumulation, which

2While control is an important and valuable practice in quality, we consider

it from a cognitive perspective in that a control-oriented mindset in managerial

judgment can potentially decrease outcome effectiveness (Repenning and Sterman,

2002; Tucker and Edmondson, 2003).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2015.03.001

0272-6963/Published by Elsevier B.V.