Definition from research
Research conducted by the authors, a phenomenological study of the utility of kaizen in
Japanese genba, explored how Japanese workers acknowledge, exercise, identify and diffuse
kaizen in a sustainable manner. Fifty-three interviews with employees in five Japanese
manufacturing corporations were completed. Respondents were drawn from a sample
stratified on both age and position within the organisation to ensure that the norms of
representativeness were met. The interviews were mostly conducted in Japanese by the lead
author, although on some occasions the interview used both English and Japanese at the
respondent’s behest. Data reduction followed as recommended by Miles and Huberman
(1994), and PASW software (PASW Statistics 18.0) was used for the statistical analysis of
results.