Integrated Visual Management: A Systematic Approach to Organic Continuous Improvement

While top-down Continuous Improvement (CI) strategies have received extensive research, bottom-up CI, particularly in its organic form, has received little attention. This study introduces the "Integrated Visual Management” framework (IVM), guiding the design, execution, and embedding of Organic CI. IVM is a bottom-up, process-oriented, project-driven, data-based CI framework. It offers an alternative to the command-and-control management strategies (top-down) and highlights the benefits of empowering employees to drive performance improvements from the bottom of an organisation. This research also offers empirical evidence on the positive relationship between IVM and continual performance improvement. Furthermore, it illustrates IVM's strengths and weaknesses.