By Vijaya Sunder M, Kevin Linderman
Journal of Operations Management | March 2026
https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.70038
Sunder M, V., and K.Linderman. 2026. “When Yes Is a No: Navigating the Façade of Conformity in Continuous Improvement.” Journal of Operations Management1–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.70038.
Journal of Operations Management, 2026
Continuous improvement (CI) is executed as micro-projects of short durations, limited scope, and small team sizes, that employ diverse improvement practices, methodologies, and tools, and hence differ from other organizational projects. Known for their bottom-up approach that promotes total employee involvement, CI projects are crucial for achieving operational excellence in firms. Yet, in practice, a tension arises in CI project teams between- (a) conforming to hierarchical structures and social influences (where CI project managers are ultimate owners of CI projects), which trigger conformity and (b) the inherent traits of CI culture that promote questioning the status quo and out-of-the-box thinking, which fosters constructive dissent. When such tension arises, some CI project team members may suppress their views without speaking out during project decision-making and pretend to agree with the team’s decisions. We characterize this overt agreement in CI project teams as a “façade of conformity,” a dysfunctional agreement that undermines psychological well-being and reduces cognitive resources due to discrepancies between overt agreements and covert beliefs in team members. Examining this behavioral dynamic is critical as it can lead to incorrect project team decisions, affecting project outcomes. This research is the first to empirically investigate the impact of the façade of conformity on CI project performance and explore how collective team identification and project leader experience moderate this impact. Our study is based on a longitudinal data collection strategy comprising archival and field data from 330 CI project proposals involving 1520 employees. Our findings inform managers to recognize and navigate the façade of conformity to safeguard their efforts and investments in CI initiatives.
Vijaya Sunder M is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management (Practice) and Programme Director of ISB Executive Education: Operational Excellence for Leaders Programme, and ISB Online: Certificate Programme in Project Management at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He also serves on the advisory board of ISB’s Executive Fellow Programme in Management and Executive Education. Previously, he served as Chair of the Experiential Learning Programme (2022-2025), Academic Director of the Centre for Business Innovation (2023– 2024), and a BAT Research Fellow (2021– 2023).
He holds a PhD in Operational Excellence from IIT Madras and brings over 18 years of industry experience from global corporations. He has served as Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group, Assistant Vice President at Barclays, and Quality Leader at American Express and Citi.
Professor Sunder’s research focuses on operational excellence, project management, behavioural operations, and human-AI collaboration. He has authored three books and published scholarly research in leading journals, including Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Research, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. His articles have also appeared in Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Management and Business Review, and Rotman Management. His teaching case studies, published by Harvard Business Publishing, are among the bestsellers.
Professor Sunder has received several prestigious honors, including ASQ’s Global Crosby Award, IAQ’s Walter E. Masing Award, recognition as one of PEX Network’s (IQPC) Top 50 Operational Excellence Thought Leaders worldwide, and Global Thought Leader in Operational Excellence by Kaizuno and Excellence Talks. In 2025, he was featured in Business Mint’s 50 Under 50 Brightest Minds of India for his contributions to the field of Operational Excellence. In 2026, he was conferred the Best Junior Research Scholar Award at the OPEX mini-conference, at the 36th POMS annual conference in Reno, NV. He is also a recipient of IIT Madras Best Researcher Award in 2018, the Quality Champion Award (Gold category) by the Quality Control of India (QCI), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India in 2022, and the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award (Runner-up) in 2022.
At ISB, he teaches courses for the PGP, Executive MBA, and PhD programs, including Business Process Excellence, Operational Excellence, Digital Transformation in Services, Project Management, and Operations Management. He has won multiple “Professor of the Year” – Best Teacher: Teaching Excellence Awards for the PGP core and elective courses for the Class of 2021 (one award), Class of 2023 (two awards), Class of 2024 (one award), Class of 2025 (three awards), AMPH Class of 2024 (one award), and AMPOS Class of 2025 (one award).
A TEDx speaker and sought-after keynote presenter, Professor Sunder, has trained over 10,000 business executives worldwide and is widely known for his innovative and experiential pedagogies.
