The foundations of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma provide interesting insights into the complexity of performance management approaches. A snapshot of various methods, techniques, and tools used within the Six Sigma–Lean Six Sigma combination highlights the complexity of one such performance management approach. Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma are performance management approaches with the ultimate objective to improve profitability, maximize value, and increase shareholder investment. Adopting top-down performance management techniques, the aim is to obtain organizational conformance, reduce defects, and maximize productivity.

Hailed as a productivity technique for measuring and maximizing quality improvement of manufacturing and business processes and increasing profitability and process efficiencies, large companies adopted a Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma approach. Subsequently, Six Sigma as a performance management approach that ...