EFFECT OF POLITICAL CHANGE TO THE CHANGE OF CORPORATE VALUES

Lean is the mainstream process improvement philosophy. It has a more or less standardized set of techniques, which are well known worldwide, however the application environments – mostly due to cultural differences – are rather diverse. Hungary has been on the way of political and economical transition since 1989. Following the first free election in 1990 there were several changes in the structure of production and service companies. Previously state-owned “giants” of industry died, others have been privately owned for a long time. The study examined the lean applications in different, mostly Central and Eastern European countries in transition based on literature review. They carried out an empirical research in Hungary. Original Hungarian companies which existed before 1990 were in the research focus, analysing their lean implementation and corporate values. The research found basic differences in the attitudes before and after the change of economical system, and providing information about the closed gap regarding corporate values of foreigner owned and Hungarian owned companies.