Digitalisation provides both challenges and opportunities for Quality Management (QM). The purpose of this study is to identify various roles QM practitioners play in digitalisation initiatives to uncover the challenges and potential of QM?s digitalisation journey. This issue is addressed through an analytical framework that stresses two dimensions: the exploration and exploitation of digitalised QM processes and value creation, which is performed by the customer or in interactions facilitated by the provider. Through a multiple-case study of four large Swedish organisations, we propose six different challenges and corresponding roles for QM. Further, the study identifies challenges of digitalisation affecting both exploitative and explorative practices throughout an organisation?s value creation process. This research contributes to the existing literature with empirical evidence on the challenges induced by digitalisation, an area often discussed but not as often studied empirically.

Purpose

Conducting research that is both practice- and theory-relevant is important for the service research community. Action research can be a fruitful approach for service researchers studying the transformative role of service research and wanting to make contributions to both the research community and to practical development. By exploring the current use of action research in service research, this study aims to make suggestions for enhancing the contribution to theory and practice development and to propose criteria for research quality for action research in service research.

Design/methodology/approach

This study builds on a systematic literature review of the use of action research approaches in service research.

Findings

The study makes three main contributions. First, it posits that any action research project needs to consider the four elements of problem identification, theorization, creating guiding concepts and intervention. Second, based on these elements mirrored in service action research, it outlines and analyzes three approaches to action research (i.e. theory-enhancing, concept developing and practice-enhancing). Third, it suggests a move from instrumental to a more conceptual relevance of the research and elaborates on the criteria for research quality.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the understanding of how action research may be applied for conducting high-quality collaborative research in services and proposes measures to enhance research quality in action research projects focusing services.

Purpose Digitalization provides both challenges and opportunities for Quality Management (QM). The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges induced by digitalization on current QM practices, in order to uncover the potential of how QM may support digitalization in organizations. This issue is addressed through an analytical framework that stresses two dimensions: first exploration and exploitation of digitalized QM processes and second value creation, which is performed by the customer or in interaction facilitated by the provider.

Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a cross-case study design with interview data collected from 33 quality management professionals in four large Swedish organizations.

Findings Six different challenges and corresponding roles are proposed for QM: The gardener involved in the design of the many different currently utilized technologies; the bridge-builder - a role that connects implemented digitalized solutions that enable the movement from human-to-human to a human-to-digital interface; the assistant a contributor to better value in the customer sphere for already implemented digitalized solutions; the architect including planning, designs, and reviews together with many different stakeholders; the connector focusing on the continuous management of value-in-use and open up for  opportunities for continuous interaction and value-adding;  and explorer drawing attention towards the challenges of the existing power structures.

Originality/value This paper contributes with empirical evidence on challenges induced by digitalization, an area often discussed but not as often studied empirically.  Further, the study identifies challenges of digitalization affecting both exploitative and explorative practices throughout an organisations value-creation process.

This study explores the various roles of quality departments and investigates whether their roles have different effects on business results. Based on a survey of quality managers in 211 Swedish organisations, the analysis identifies four roles of quality departments: firefighters, auditors, process improvers, and orchestrators. The roles vary in their predominant adoption of Quality Management practices ranging from a narrow scope focusing on quality management systems to a broader scope based on multiple practices. An analysis was performed to identify how each of the identified roles influences business results. The results show that quality departments with a broad focus that combines both explorative and exploitative quality practices contribute the most to business results.

Over one million organisations have a Quality Management System (QMS) certified to the ISO9000 standard; however, the system requires a lot of resources and its value has been questioned. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of uses of QMS correlates with management perceptions of QM in terms of respect, cost, and strategic importance. The paper is based on a survey within eight organisations and shows that a compliance-orientated QMS usage will more likely lead to a view on quality management as costly, and of little respect, than a business- or improvement-oriented QMS usage.

A model of live-cases is developed for educational collaboration and workintegrated learning. The model can be implemented in existing university education and lifelong learning (LLL) courses and allows engineering students and LLL students from healthcare to work together on a real-life problem. The small-scale live-case model is resource-efficient as it is strongly delineated in time (duration: one week), further it is unique in focusing not only the students' but also the practitioners’ learning. 

There is a growing interest in the use of digital technologies to create new roles and relations between health professionals and patients. This technology-enabled transformation extends the traditional interactional way to deliver healthcare services, which has been historically grounded for over 100 years. A compelling argument for this interest is that for many diseases, not least for chronically ill persons for whom the majority of practices related to treating their medical condition is carried out in their home, there is a space for healthcare service delivery that is largely invisible for the healthcare provider. Swedish healthcare is currently finding ways to adopt and utilize self-monitoring as an integral part of healthcare services. Even though there is consensus among many stakeholders that self-monitoring can be a potentially transformative force, the speed of transition is slow. The evolving phase of the healthcare service ecosystem becomes interesting to investigate and how a variety of institutional logics shape the future of the digitally engaged patient. A service ecosystem has previously been defined as “a relatively self-contained, self-adjusting system of resource-integrating actors connected by shared institutional arrangements and mutual value creation through service exchange” (Vargo and Lusch, 2016, p.10). By applying institutional theory to the case of self-monitoring in Sweden, we are responding to the call in service science to contribute to a better understanding of the service ecosystem of healthcare and what facilitates and constrains the changing roles of its actors in value creation. The purpose of this study is therefore to better understand the shift from the view of patients as passive receivers of care into being active co-producers that takes part in decision-making and in the care delivery through self-monitoring. Taking an institutional logic approach, the authors identify key “roles” (subjects), “materials” (objects) and “practices” (ways of acting) in the healthcare service ecosystem that facilitate and constrain the emergence of self-monitoring technologies. To do so, the study draws on multiple sources of evidence. First, 20 interviews have been conducted with respondents representing various key actors in the healthcare service ecosystem (e.g., health-care professionals, patient organizations, hospital managers, policy officials, pharma industries and information officers). Second, we observed a development project where new self-monitoring systems were piloted in cancer care. Our study offers several important implications for service theory and management. For service theory, this study shows how alignment and misalignment between practices, roles and materials facilitate and constrain the emergence of self-monitoring technologies within the health service ecosystem. For service management, this study raises four barriers – conflicts, compliance, lack of knowledge and appropriate technologies - that are crucial to overcome when implementing self-monitoring technologies

Studies suggest that quality managemen tprofessionals need a range of skills to simultaneously exploit current operational models and explore digital trans- formation. However, there is limited research on the impact of digitalisation on improvement work, associated practices and the skills and competencies of quality management professionals. To contribute to this gap, this study draws on a framework based on a conceptual combination of the principles of quality management and the field of occupational competence. The study aims to understand how digitalisation influences the role of quality management professionals, by assessing its influence on the professionals’ improvement practices. The study employs a multiple cross-case research design with data from interviews with nine interviewees, and two focus groups. The results show a so far nascent and limited influence of digitalisation on improvement practices, a need for explorative and team-based practices. Moreover, nine needed skills areas to enhance the professionals’ potential to benefit from digi- talisation in improvement work are suggested. These are Integrator, Pragmatic approach based on a good understanding of possibilities, Change management, Process management, General project management, Improvement analysis, Predictive and proactive approach in QM, General IT and Big data proficiency. 

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to use competence theory to explore the fit between actual competencies of quality management practitioners and the perception of quality management competence needs in organisations. 

Design/methodology/approach –This paper is based on a cross-case quantitative study design featuring a survey of quality management practitioners (n= 249) within eight large Swedish organisations. The research instrument was a questionnaire covering seven themes within quality management. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics.

Findings –The results show that while the perception of formal quality management competence may seem sufficient, the evolving nature of quality management requires knowledge, skills and attitudes that are also apt for more external and explorative perspectives. There is a bias towards competence for exploitative quality management rather than explorative quality management.  Organisational logics preserving and possibly reinforcing a perceived “competence lag” in organisations are identified and described.

Originality/value – Few empirical studies within quality management explore the competencies required for quality management practices. This paper contributes to quality management research in providing arguments for adopting competence theory as a foundation for organising current and future quality management work.

The concept of quality accommodates a range of perspectives. Over the years, various conceptual definitions of quality have reflected the evolution and trends marking the history and development of quality management. The current and widely accepted understanding of the concept of quality focuses on customer-centric notions, where meeting or preferably exceeding customer needs and expectations defines quality. However, societal drivers such as sustainability and digitalisation require a perspective on quality that is inclusive of a broader range of stakeholders to serve current and future societal needs. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the concept of quality as practiced and extend this understanding in a framework designed to include objective and subjective aspects from a broad range of stakeholders. An integrated conceptual framework offering expanded views on the foundations for defining the meaning of quality is suggested. This framework is centred around the notion of quality-in-use, which offers a way to guide and enhance the actual practices of Quality Management. It incorporates two dimensions for understanding quality; form, which covers the constructive or predefined dimension and scope, which covers the single actor or multi-interested parties dimension. Four major perspectives on quality-in-use are presented: Quality-as-customer-value, Quality-as-agreed-delivery, Quality-as-ecosystems-integration, and Quality-as-societyvalues.

Background and purpose –Several studies and recent reports address emerging and expanding needs for Quality Management (QM) impacting the professional practices and activities and maybe also the conceptual underpinnings of QM. An integrative approach for QM, facilitating both operational and strategic leverage has been described as becoming increasingly more important. However, few empirical studies have focused on what QM professionals actually do with even fewer studies focusing on what it actually takes to do QM-work, i.e. the competencies of QM.

The purpose of this paper is thus to extend the conceptual understanding of QM by introducing an activity and practice-based terminology for describing competencies of QM work in contemporary Swedish organisations and to create a conceptual competence framework suited for successful QM.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper is based on a cross-case qualitative study design incorporating four Swedish large size organizations where designated QM professionals (n= 34) were targeted, selected and interviewed.

Findings –Four generic QM roles are posited: centralised & strategic, centralised & operational, decentralised & strategic and decentralised & operational roles. A QM competence framework incorporating four essential QM competence dimensions is presented: the human, the contextual, the methods & process and the development competence dimensions. Competencies are discussed in relation to the “production dilemma” of QM and the emerging need of more integrative and business excellence-oriented QM.

Background and purpose Few empirical studies have focused on what quality management practitioners actually do, with even fewer studies focusing on what it actually takes to do quality management work, i.e. the competencies of quality management. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a competence-based terminology for describing general competencies of quality management work in organisations and to create a competence framework in order to understand what is needed to be a quality management practitioner.

Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on an embedded, qualitative multiple-case study design incorporating four Swedish large size organisations where designated quality management practitioners (n= 33) were selected and interviewed.

Findings A quality management competence framework incorporating four main quality management competence dimensions is presented: the human, the methods & process, the conceptual and the contextual competence dimensions. Four generic quality management role responsibilities are also posited: centralised & strategic, centralised & operational, local & strategic and local & operational role responsibilities. The competencies and role responsibilities are discussed in relation to the notion of emergent quality management and the emerging need of more integrative and business excellence-oriented quality management.

Purpose – The practice of quality management (QM) is transforming and the number, scope and complexity of QM tasks and related QM practices is increasing beyond what could be described as traditional QM. There is currently an ambiguity as to what constitutes a QM professional and the competencies needed to be one. The purpose of this study is to understand if QM professionals are equipped to support contemporary QM work by exploring their competencies, roles and practices in contemporary organizations.

Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a survey of QM professionals (n= 249) within eight Swedish large size organizations, surveyed in the fall of 2016 (response rate 81 per cent). The questionnaire covered 7 themes within QM and key results covering competencies and practices were extracted and analysed.

Findings – The study shows that there is a difference between the levels of perceived formal competencies and levels of informal competencies with the QM professionals in the studied organizations. The most prominent role feature of a QM professional is that of a QM tools and methods specialist. However, though this mainly internally focused role is still in demand, a more strategic and externally focused role is also identified as becoming more in demand.

Research limitations/implications – The survey data is presented with descriptive statistics. Further studies are needed to extend the results in a more in-depth analysis.

Practical implications –There is a need for a structured approach in identifying QM competencies and practices for two overall QM roles: QM specialist and QM generalist. Ambitions to create and maintain ambidexterity necessitates both specialist competencies and generalist competencies to balance and harmonize exploitative and explorative organizational capabilities.

Originality/value – This study extends research on the competencies and practices of QM professionals, evaluating the purpose and practices of QM through the experiences of a large number of QM professionals.

Background and purpose The concept of quality accommodates a range of perspectives. Over the years, various conceptual definitions of quality have reflected the evolution and trends marking the history and development of quality management. The current and widely accepted understanding of the concept of quality focusses on customer centred notions, where meeting or preferably exceeding customer needs and expectations defines what quality is. 

However, with the advent of more holistic and integrated conceptualisations (e.g. “Quality 4.0” and “Quality 5.0”), emphasising the inclusion of a wider range of stakeholders and with quality also geared towards achieving societal and environmental sustainability, it can be argued that customer centred notions of quality may be somewhat misaligned, overly narrow and ill-served for current and future societal needs. Customer centred notions on quality are, by definition, subjective and relative and this paper argues that more holistic approaches to sustainable quality calls for a need to further explore objective and possible absolute notions of quality. 

The purpose of this paper is thus to elaborate on the underpinnings of the concept of quality and extend the conceptual understanding of quality more apt for holistic and integrative interpretations of quality.

Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper based on a literature review aiming for a conceptual reconfiguration that revises the current perspectives and understanding on quality. Cases from various sectors are used to illustrate the perspectives brought forward. 

Findings An integrated conceptual framework offering an expanded view on the foundations for the concept of quality is presented. This framework incorporates two dimensions for understanding quality; the subjective/objective dimension and the individual/societal (multi-actor) dimension. Derived from these dimensions, four major perspectives for perceiving and understanding quality are presented. The paper argues that any sustainable and viable notion on the practical realisation of actual quality, or quality-in-use, must be based on the relation and balance between four major perspectives.    

Det du nu läser är en guide tänkt att användas som ett stöd och en vägledning till dig som i arbetet leder eller deltar i aktiviteter på distans med stöd av digitala arbetssätt. 

Guiden är utvecklad av forskare och organisationer i flera forskningsprojekt som studerar möjligheter och ut­maningar i ledarskap på distans med stöd av digitala ar­betssätt. 

Guiden vänder sig i första hand till er som är chefer och ledare med ansvar för att planera och genomföra aktivite­ter på distans med stöd av digitala arbetssätt, men den kan även läsas av medarbetare och andra funktioner i era orga­nisationer. 

En central del i guiden är ”verktygslådan” där vi, utifrån våra egna forskningsresultat samt med stöd av tidigare forskning, har satt ihop ett urval av praktiska verktyg som kan användas för att möjliggöra ett effektivare ledarskap på distans. 

Guiden och verktygen i verktygslådan tar avstamp i var­dagsnära situationer och aktiviteter som vi i våra forsk­ningsprojekt sett innehåller stor potential att förbättra hur arbete på distans med stöd av digitala arbetssätt kan orga­niseras och ledas. 

Vi visar vanligt förekommande arbetssätt och verktyg och ger konkreta och praktiska tips på hur ni kan arbeta tillsammans för att kunna uppnå bättre resultat, lära och utveckla både för individer och för organisationen samt bidra till bättre hälsa och välbefinnande. 

Guiden kan ses som en palett av arbetssätt och verktyg som ni antingen kan pröva direkt och/eller ha som under­lag för diskussion i syfte att ta fram egna, skräddarsydda arbetssätt. Använd den som inspiration och hjälpmedel för att utveckla ditt ledarskap och medarbetarskap samt ditt sätt att leda och möjliggöra digitala aktiviteter på distans. 

Om du vill testa någon eller några av de verktyg och ar­betssätt som presenteras i guiden tillsammans forskare så hör av dig till Jason Martin (jason.martin@liu.se) eller Andreas Wallo (andreas.wallo@liu.se) på Linköpings universitet.

Universities search for ways to prepare full-time students for real worklife challenges, but also for ways to offer practitioners life-long learning (LLL) opportunities. This paper presents a live-case model integrating full-time engineering students and LLL students from healthcare in a case model focusing learnings for both groups. The small-scale live-case model offers a resource-efficient learning activity for both traditional courses and LLL courses. The unique characteristics is that the model is strongly delineate in time (duration: one week), and that it focuses not only the students' but also the practitioners’ learning.

Decision-making and problem solving are central parts of managers’ working day, yet shortcomings such as making subjective or biased decisions and decisions based on incomplete data are reported. Attempting to resolve non-problems by changing a system perceived to have caused a problem is sometimes denoted as tampering. The purpose of this paper is to explore possible countermeasures for proposed types of tampering, namely overcompensation, derailing, disagreement, overruling and escalation. All tampering types studied require different countermeasures. Common countermeasures are to focus on problem identification, not attempt to find solutions too quickly and involve employees with first-hand knowledge on the problem.

Quality management focuses on improvements aimed at enhancing the value createdfor various stakeholders. However, actions taken in response to a perceived problemsometimes lead to an inferior result rather than an improvement. Such actions havebeen denoted tampering. As an example, natural variation might unnecessarily beperceived as a problem, where the best way to handle that ‘problem’ would be to notact at all. However, for someone trained in quality management and striving forimprovement, doing nothing might be more challenging than acting. The researchquestion studied in this paper is: How do emotional, motivational and cognitivemechanisms influence tampering in problem-solving situations? Through interviewswith 17 respondents, 33 tampering situations were identified and analysed. Thefindings describe emotional, motivational and cognitive mechanisms that leadindividuals to take actions leading to tampering. Some examples of thesemechanisms are fear of the consequences of not acting, feelings of guilt if not actingto resolve a problem, and taking actions based on experiences of past problemsolving. To counteract this, it is advised to set aside time for reflections beforestarting problem-solving and to establish an environment encouraging of reflections.

This report presents the findings of a Delphi study coordinated by Linköping University (LiU) in collaboration with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and the Chalmers University of Technology. The study was carried out in 2022 as part of a Vinnova-funded planning project aimed at establishing an interdisciplinary research environment to prepare an application for a new competence centre focused on building a long-term, sustainable Swedish industry. The Delphi study aimed to identify key challenges related to the ambition to develop a socially sustainable, competitive, and green industry subjected to an accelerating pace of change.

The Delphi study was based on an interactive research approach to facilitate the cocreation of knowledge for the dual purpose of advancing long-term theory development and innovation processes. The consortium and its reference groups consist of industrial companies (such as AstraZeneca, Ericsson IndustryLab, Rimaster, Saab Aeronautics, Scania, Volvo GTO and Volvo Cars), intermediaries and educational actors (such as Skill, IUC Sverige and Linköping Science Park), labour market organisations (including IF Metall, Industriarbetsgivarna, Unionen, and Teknikföretagen), governmental agencies (the Office for Sustainable Working life), and researchers from LiU, Chalmers, and RISE.

There are key industrial targets forming the starting point for the Delphi study that also guide policies and investments in strategic agendas for the industrial stakeholders. For the Swedish industry to be resilient and sustainable, new competence and organisational abilities are required to decrease the dependency on fossil energy in production. Transformation towards electrification, circular economy, and digitalisation are key enablers, and these transitions are ongoing and accelerating at a fast pace. Furthermore, new and constantly emerging targets require organisational resilience, like managing new requirements and targets within energy consumption and supply of competence.

The findings of this report include a total of 14 identified challenges.

1. To organise and create conditions for flexible work for all
2. To successfully manage crises and drastic external events
3. To successfully drive and contribute to the green industrial transformation
4. To facilitate employee-driven innovation and organisational learning
5. To attract, develop and retain employees with the right skills
6. To take advantage of and exploit the opportunities of digitalisation
7. To create inclusive workplaces and utilise diversity
8. To organise competence development
9. To collaborate with external parties to ensure the availability of competence
10. To design for socially sustainable work considering efficiency and good health in a dynamic environment
11. To organise the creation of added value for and together with customers and suppliers
12. To systematically drive continuous improvement work in parallel with long-term development work
13. To develop leadership that creates better opportunities both for a climate-neutral footprint and a competitive industry with good working conditions
14. To transform research- and policy-based knowledge into practice

The 14 challenges were further analysed according to perceived importance and ability and presented in a priority matrix. According to the priority matrix, the 14 challenges were then synthesised into six main research themes: A. Innovative competence supply practice, B. Resilient organisations & production systems, C. Analytics for improvement & learning, D. Socially sustainable work, E. Green transformation practices, and an open and undefined research theme labelled as Future challenges. The research themes are also presented together with six main analytical and theoretical perspectives in a matrix that can be used to intersect and interweave the research themes to guide the research agenda in a potential future research program.

Global labor market shifts have spurred the need for innovations and adaptations in workplace norms. This evolution demands a workforce with technical and soft skills to meet sustainability and industry advancements. The paper aims to elucidate the complex challenges related to the ambition to develop a socially sustainable, competitive, and green industry subjected to an accelerating pace of change. It outlines the findings of a Delphi study conducted in Sweden, which integrated workshops, interviews, and surveys with experts from various sectors to identify 14 key challenges. These challenges were synthesized into five themes: innovative competence supply management practices, resilient organizations and production systems, analytics for improvement and learning, socially sustainable work, and green transformation practices. The study provides a set of propositions within these themes, offering a strategic roadmap for future research to foster the growth of industries that are socially responsible, competitive, and committed to environmental sustainability. A practical implication of the study is the recognition of the larger competence ecosystem of which industrial companies are a part. This community must work together to create the knowledge needed to manage the shift to a green, sustainable, and digital working life.