The Continuous Improvement Process

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) and a special form of it the participationin the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) are prospective key factors andqualifications that differentiate a successful from an average company. Theyrepresent the most important part of the human capital that gets more and moreimportant and relevant for the economical success in times of the information societyand numerous lean strategies.OCB or the participation in the CIP can not be influenced directly or even bedemanded. The constructs organizational identification and organizationalcommitment are supposed to be the most important predictors for a strong OCB.Unfortunately there are only less holistic approaches to systematically strengthenidentification and commitment in an enterprise - a holistic approach based on longterm considerations is necessary.Therefore the aim of this paper is (a) the empirical proof of a positive connectionbetween OCB respectively CIP efforts among employees and identification or rathercommitment. (b) the development of a holistic consulting approach to increase theparticipation in the CIP.Via a quantitative survey in the shop floor level of an automobile manufacturer it wasproved that mainly the affective and cognitive dimensions show positive correlationswith the participation in the CIP.A consulting approach for a systematic composition of affective and cognitiveidentification and commitment is derived from the theoretical and empirical insights.The target groups are students and scientists in the field of identificationcommitment and CIP as well as practitioners and consultants in the business of thecontinuous improvement process.