Proposal of an unconventional method to assess polyvalence in lean organizations

Lean management is considered as one of the mail challenges that organizations have to face to decrease their production costs and increase their performances. In this context, employees have been recognized as the real value added for a lean organization and the management of human resources a critical variable. In particular, the concept of polyvalence has been identified as one of the main pillars in developing lean initiatives. However, when a polyvalence program is established only a technical point of view is taken, neglecting soft skills perspective. To overcome this lack, this paper proposes a new approach on polyvalence evaluation based upon an unconventional model that considers both soft and hard skills. An empirical application shows that the expansion of employees' work allows improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of an organization, as well as the quality of employees' working life. Extrapolated information can be used by organizations to support efficient and effective employees' management as well as to enable suitable training and incentive policies.