Dissertation
Exploring the role of team member personalities on Six Sigma project success, and modelling the analytic hierarchy process
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/12175
Abstract
This dissertation has two major components. First, it focuses on how the personalities of Six Sigma team members affect Six Sigma project success. Second it focuses on building a new way to simulate decision matrices from the Analytic Hierarchy Process or AHP.
Chapters Two and Three are primarily addressing the Six Sigma problem. In Chapter Two I review two major bodies of literature. The first is the literature regarding personalities of team members in various applications and disciplines. The second body of literature is regarding Six Sigma project success. We found that while there is a rich a fruitful research base regarding how the personalities of team members affect success in other areas, a major gap in the literature was that this had not been studied in the context of Six Sigma. I synthesized these two bodies of literature and developed a list of potential variables to be studied in this context.
In Chapter Three I further explore this area of research and perform a multiple case study analysis that analyzed multiple Six Sigma projects at four companies in varying industries. I analyzed team member personalities and performed logistic regression analysis of the case results to determine which personality characteristics, and Six Sigma contextual variables most strongly contribute to Six Sigma project success. This analysis determined which variables would provide for the most fruitful research in future confirmatory studies.
Finally, in Chapter Four I develop a new method for simulating Analytic Hierarchy Process decision matrices. Some simulation studies have been conducted in the past, but many of those studies have used unrealistic probability distributions for ease of analysis. Further, I draw some interesting conclusions regarding AHP matrix consistency.
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Details
- Title
- Exploring the role of team member personalities on Six Sigma project success, and modelling the analytic hierarchy process
- Creators
- Phillip Wilson Witt
- Contributors
- Timothy K Baker (Advisor)Charles L Munson (Committee Member)Sung K Ahn (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Carson College of Business
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 172
- Identifiers
- 99900581434301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation