BUSINESS EXCELLENCE, LEADERSHIP AND LEAN: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

The objective of this study is to examine the prevailing literature on Business Excellence (BE), leadership and Lean. Leadership is enabling criteria of Business Excellence Models (BEMs) and Lean is one of the keys improvement initiative which can be adopted and the path forward in achieving BE. The analysis involved studying 506 research articles published between 2009 and Aug 2020 in well-known academic databases. This systematic literature review intends to organize, synthesize and structure the shared fount of knowledge concerning to BE, leadership and Lean. The classification and analysis of these articles are according to the following axes: years of publication, types of journals and research context. Each trend of the three axes is granted in the analysis. The main research fields are suggested to guide future research agenda of BEMs. This study focused on recent 11 years articles and ignored those studies from journals that are focusing on an area other than quality and management, dissertations and books. The results of the study would also benefit academicians, researchers, and professionals to focus on the pertinence, growth and research developments in the Lean management field and BE system. This study is possibly one such comprehensive systematic literature reviews focusing on a vital agenda of leadership and Lean management in BE. All the texts, tables and figures presented in this paper were original work carried out by authors.