Yvonne Lagrosen

Management of service quality – differences in values, practices and outcomes

This article concerns a study with the purpose of identifying differences in the management of quality between manufacturing, private service and public service organisations. A questionnaire was sent to members of the Swedish Association for Quality. Some interesting differences were identified. Customer orientation is highest in the private service sector and lowest in the public service sector. The manufacturing companies’ usage of ISO 9000 is extremely high and their usage of the Swedish Quality Award is fairly low whereas the public service organisations use both these two models equally. This corresponds with the finding that ISO 9000 produces better results in the manufacturing sector whereas The Swedish Quality Award produces better results in the service sector. Generally, the indication is that quality management is most successful in the manufacturing sector and least successful in the public service sector. There is also a difference in that improvements in the manufacturing sector are more often about the processes whereas the organisations within the public service sector more often report improvements regarding personnel.

Exploring service quality in the health and fitness industry

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to discover quality dimensions for the health‐and‐fitness industry and to examine the salient aspects of the quality‐management practices of organisations in this industry.Design/methodology/approach – The research in this paper uses a grounded‐theory approach to a multiple case study of 15 companies in the Swedish health‐and‐fitness industry. Qualitative methods in the form of in‐depth interviews and observation are utilised for data collection.Findings – The paper finds that a framework for fitness quality management is developed and presented. The quality dimensions are found to be “pleasure”, “mental change”, and “physical change”. The main enablers are defined as “relational competence” and “technical competence”. Other indirect enablers are also identified and described.Research limitations/implications – The paper shows that because the framework is based on qualitative data collection, the relationships are not quantified. This could be an objective of further...

Quality management and health : A double connection

The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss the effects of quality management in the health care sector and the general effects of quality management on the health of the employees. Methodo ...

Moral development, executive functioning, peak experiences and brain patterns in professional and amateur classical musicians: Interpreted in light of a Unified Theory of Performance

This study compared professional and amateur classical musicians matched for age, gender, and education on reaction times during the Stroop color-word test, brainwaves during an auditory ERP task and during paired reaction-time tasks, responses on the Gibbs Sociomoral Reflection questionnaire, and self-reported frequencies of peak experiences. Professional musicians were characterized by: (1) lower color-word interference effects (Stroop task), (2) faster categorization of rare expected stimuli (P3b), and a trend for faster processing of rare unexpected stimuli (P3a), (3) higher scores on the Sociomoral Reflection questionnaire, and (4) more frequent peak experiences during rest, tasks, and sleep. Both groups had high values on the Brain Integration Scale. These findings are interpreted in light of a Unified Theory of Performance, which posits that effectiveness in any area is influenced by ones level of mind-brain development-emotional, cognitive, moral, ego and cortical development-with higher mind-brain development supporting greater effectiveness in any domain.

Quality configurations:a contingency approach to quality management

This article departs from Mintzbergs framework in which five different organisational configurations are defined. The purpose of the study has been to identify and describe the differences between organisations of different configurations to determine the way that quality management is used and the effects that are produced. The research population comprised the members of the Swedish Association for Quality. A questionnaire was mailed to 500 members. The questions concerned the values, models and techniques of quality management as well as the outcomes and the difficulties in using these models and techniques. The results show that the differences between the configurations are limited. Two of the more important differences are that systematic quality management is less used in the adhocracy configuration and that the effect of increased participation is more seldom seen in the professional bureaucracy configuration. On a general basis, it is also noted that the use of quality models and tools is rather infrequent and the value of committed leadership is highlighted.

Organisational learning and Six Sigma deployment readiness evaluation: a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a greater understanding of organisational learning in connection with assessment of Six Sigma readiness. Different forms that a possible deployment ...

Trust and quality management : Perspectives from marketing and organisational learning

In this paper, the concept of trust is elaborated upon and compared with the traditional values of quality management. Trust is approached from the areas of relationship marketing and organisational learning where it is a frequent element. The purpose is to create a framework of trust based on previous research, particularly in the areas of relationship marketing and organisational learning, and to analyse whether trust should be regarded as a core value of quality management. Properties of the concept of trust in quality management, relationship marketing and organisational learning are described. Concerning trust as a quality value, it is found that dissimilarities with the current values make it an unsuitable candidate for inclusion in this group. However, examination of the underlying components of the current values of quality management is encouraged with the conviction that trust will prove to be an important element in this endeavour. A tentative framework based on the two dimensions of aspects of trust and components of the relationship is proposed. This framework broadens the view of trust and its implications for quality management. The proposed framework should be helpful for managers in providing a more structured view of the different aspects of trust in business relationships.

Approach for measuring health‐related quality management

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measuring health-related quality management based on earlier research on the connection between quality management and employee heal ...

A dive into the depths of quality management

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the fundamentals of quality management, to examine the deeper layers of quality management and propose a tentative framework of its profound foundations. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is conceptual, reviewing the quality management literature and connecting it with contributions from service management, organisational consciousness studies and eastern philosophy. Findings - A model of quality management consisting of the levels of techniques, models and values has been the starting point. From this basis, an elaborated framework of the foundations of quality management, including different aspects of the values, functions and activity elements, has been developed. Originality/value - Current approaches to quality management might be too superficial, which could be the cause of many implementation failures. In this paper, a deeper understanding is sought. A novel framework has been proposed that can provide a basis for further research into the profound nature of quality management. Further, implications that should be useful for managers are discussed. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A health‐related quality management approach to evaluating health promotion activities

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper was to describe health promotion activities accomplished within a project and to measure the conditions for sustainable health within the case organizatio ...