Designing a Bottom-up Operations Strategy: Transforming Organizations and Individuals

This book focuses on top-down and bottom-up antecedents for employee engagement. It combines Operations Management (OM) with elements from Human Resource Management (HRM) and Organizational Behavior (OB) to answer the overarching question: “How is operations strategy formation influenced by the individual employee?” Dedicated chapters investigate key research questions, closing the integration gap between OM and HRM/OB. The book develops and statistically analyzes an operations strategy opportunity-motivation-ability framework. In addition, it examines how basic need fulfillment and organizational fairness relate to job satisfaction and performance. 

By doing so, the book helps readers to better understand employees’ preferences and enables operations managers to foster strategy-supportive behavior and job satisfaction more effectively in their workforces.

Dr. Thilo Scholz studied Business Administration and General Management at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany. His research interests focus on operations strategy and organizational psychology. During his doctoral studies, he was partially funded by Ball Packaging Europe and helped them to improve strategy cascading at their plants.

Prof. Dr. Arnd Huchzermeier is the Chair Professor of Production Management at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany. He taught at the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business after earning his PhD from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has authored books on e.g. supply chain finance and industrial excellence, and regularly publishes in leading managerial and academic journals. During his career he has hold several visiting professorships e.g. at Kobe University, Japan. He is the Co-Founder of the INSEAD-WHU Industrial Excellence Award.

Torsten A. Kühlmann studied Business Administration and General Management at the University of Regensburg and the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany. He completed his Bachelor and Master of Science with exchange semesters in Boulder, Colorado, and Tokyo, Japan. After finishing his studies, Torsten joined the Boston Consulting Group in Munich and Berlin, where he supported clients in the private equity sector. He is currently leading the business development and strategy team at Trade Republic, one of Europe’s fastest growing fintechs.