Research study on Lean philosophy and organizational culture
We're studying how Lean thinking shapes the way organisations in Portugal actually work — as part of a Master's dissertation at ISEP, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto.
An academic study, not a sales pitch
This website exists to support an independent academic research project. It is conducted as part of the Master's programme in Mechanical Engineering – Industrial Management (Mestrado em Engenharia Mecânica – Gestão Industrial) at ISEP — Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto.
If you received an email inviting you to take a short survey, it was sent from this project — this page is here so you can check that before responding.
Why we're looking at Lean and culture together
Lean philosophy is usually described through its tools — Kaizen, value-stream mapping, 5S. But whether those tools actually take hold tends to depend on something harder to measure: the culture of the organisation that adopts them.
This study examines how Lean principles and organisational culture relate to one another across companies operating in Portugal, across different sectors and sizes — aiming to contribute real data to the academic understanding of why some organisations sustain continuous improvement, and others struggle to.
What taking part involves
Participation is voluntary, takes most respondents a few minutes, and asks nothing beyond your honest perspective.
- A short questionnaire about Lean practices and culture in your organisation
- Best answered by someone close to operations or management
- No cost, no obligation, and no commercial follow-up
- Aggregate, anonymised results only — no individual company is ever named
How did you get my contact details?
Will my company be identified in the results?
I don't want to be contacted again — what do I do?
Is this study really affiliated with ISEP?
How your information is handled
All data collected through the survey is processed in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Responses are used exclusively for academic purposes, kept confidential, and reported only in anonymised, aggregated form.
Nothing collected here is sold, shared with third parties, or used for marketing. Questions about your data, or a request to be removed from contact lists, can be sent at any time to the address below.
Get in touch
Whether you want to confirm this study is genuine, ask a question before answering the survey, or request that we don't contact you again — we're glad to hear from you.