The relationship between self-efficacy and sustainable Lean management systems within the healthcare arena.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the social contexts of sustainable Lean culture in healthcare by examining self-efficacy (SE) as a fundamental construct related to the value of perceived readiness, prior education of Lean and the importance of leadership's system-level support.

Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive correlational study was conducted to identify the relationships between SE and Lean readiness factors, SE and prior Lean training, SE and clinical vs administrative roles and SE and perceived system-level support in a large health system.

Findings: There was a statistically significant difference in self-reported readiness to use Lean tools between individuals who had received Lean training during their academic education and those who had not; however, their level of education did not impact SE. Lastly, and perhaps most important, the learner who embodies SE also has system-level support.

Research limitations/implications: Future directions of this research, in addition to assessing team readiness as other studies suggest, would be to evaluate individual team member readiness by gauging SE and addressing deficits prior to the deployment of process improvement (PI) projects to promote success and sustainability.

Practical implications: This contributes to the ongoing scholarship of Lean management systems, providing clinical and non-clinical leaders with a contextual understanding of their supportive role in the SE of teams.

Originality/value: This study demonstrates the value of understanding SE of individual team members and how it can contribute to overall improved team outcomes, directly impacting the sustainability of Lean change culture and its promotion of improved patient safety, cost efficiencies and access to care.