Abstract:
The airline services industry suffers from high cost, waste management and environmental pressures, along with
a competitive business environment. The lean and green (L&G) paradigm is a fusion of the well-established
management concepts of lean thinking and green management and creates synergies between these concepts
to produce heightened cost reducing and environmentally friendly benefits. The purpose of this generic
qualitative research study was to explore the L&G paradigm’s drivers, barriers, and practices among seven
airline operators in the South African airline services industry. This was completed through 12 semi-structured
telephonic interviews. This study found that airline operators are mature in their adoption of the L&G paradigm,
with L&G practices focused around fuel efficiency and weight reduction. The drivers of lean adoption are
regulatory requirements and a competitive operating environment, while the barriers are inherent service
interruptions, a ‘lean limit’, and money market volatility. The major drivers of green management adoption are
well-developed regulations and a fear of future regulations, while the barriers are a price focused consumer
market and issues with efficient technology adoption. Academically, this study identified that firms may have
unique ‘lean limits’, and highlighted the possible application of the L&G paradigm in a service-context by
corroborating findings reported in the manufacturing-based literature. Practically, the findings can assist
managers to identify where the ‘lean limit’ exists in their firm and to begin actively incorporating green
management into their objectives rather than enjoying environmental benefits as a spill-over benefit from lean
initiatives.
