The pressure to transition to a more sustainable business model is not new for the corporate industry. But in today’s business world organizations experience external pressure more than ever before. The urge from social consciousness, the political agenda, and globalization are forcing organizations to adapt by establishing new resource-efficient business models. An approach often turned to is Lean thinking. Although Lean Management has become one of the greatest management inventions of the twentieth century, nevertheless, many organizations fail to instill Lean principles into their organizational culture. The failures or unsatisfactory results can be attributed to the lack of leadership and especially the lack of management support and commitment of the middle management layer. The middle manager has an important role in the rollout of Lean, but the middle management is often low or not at all involved in the rollout process. Nevertheless, the behaviors of the middle managers are the key enablers to a successful and sustainable Lean transformation. This organizational layer can make or break the rollout of the Lean philosophy.
In this thesis, the theory of how middle manager behaviors are influencing the Lean rollout is developed. This theory states that the middle manager behaviors are fuelled and triggered by six underlying factors. These underlying factors are Position & Responsibility, Beliefs & Mindset, Communication & Collaboration, Managerial hierarchy, Empathic ability, and Leadership. These factors influence the behaviors and expressions of those behaviors and indirectly or directly influence the rollout of Lean. The middle manager behaviors have a direct impact on the instilling of the Lean philosophy in the mind of others and with this an important role in the establishment of a Lean support network within an organization. Nevertheless, the results of this study show that a successful and eventually sustainable Lean rollout is dependent on knowledge and the sharing of this knowledge within the organization.