Inclusive innovation in lean implementation : empowerment of sewing machine operators : a study of Sri Lankan apparel firms

Abstract

Employee empowerment is central to lean implementation. However, there is surprisingly little research directly addressing the relationship between employee empowerment and employee work attitudes. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between employee empowerment on job satisfaction, turnover intention, affective commitment and job involvement in Apparel Firms. A sample of twelve apparel manufacturing firms was selected for the study. From these firms, randomly selected 362 female sewing machine operators responded to the selfadministrated survey questionnaire developed for the study. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between employee empowerment on job satisfaction, turnover intention, affective commitment and job involvement. Therefore, lean implementation can be incorporated with inclusive innovation principles, such as employee empowerment, so that work attitudes of female sewing operators could be improved.