The impact of Lean adoption on organizational performance in a public service: the case of the Greek citizen’s service centers

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between Lean adoption and organizational performance in a specific Greek public services subsector, namely, citizen’s service centers (CSCs). Design/methodology/approach An online structured questionnaire survey was distributed to all the Greek CSCs, and 672 employees responded and fully completed the questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to assess the measurement model’s reliability and validity. The relationships between the latent constructs were examined through structural equation modeling. Findings The study revealed that Greek CSCs adopt at a medium to high extent the following principles: understanding customer needs, establishment of value streams, creating flows within the value streams and value perfection. The data also revealed a valid latent factor reflecting the Lean application, namely, “Lean adoption,” which, according to the findings, contributes to the organizational performance of Greek CSCs. Research limitations/implications The small percentage of the responding employees of the Greek CSCs, given their large population and the subjective nature of the data collected, constitute the main limitations of the present study. Practical implications The findings of this research will serve as a reference source for managers and decision-makers of CSCs in order for them to set the foundations for successfully adopting the Lean principles and therefore improve their organizational performance in terms of operational performance and satisfaction with employees and citizens. Originality/value Building on the public sector literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the adoption of Lean principles in the Greek CSCs and defines the relationships between Lean adoption and organizational performance.