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The purpose of the study conducted is to investigate whether there is improvement potential based on the total quality development and why not employees are involved in managing returns and complaints on departments within a store. The theoretical background contains methods and working methods in TQM, the core values as cornerstones, Lean and Adair's theory of motivation and leadership, which forms the basis of the result presented on the basis of the questions. The study is the basis for following up on previous studies on improvement areas and examining it on the basis of TQM with a combination of Lean's working methods and motivational theories.

The work has then presented an action plan to supplement and improve the results based on the study and a discussion on the result based on the content of the theoretical reference framework.

The study was conducted in a qualitative research study where the data collection was based on qualitative interviews and participatory observations. The collected material from the interviews and the observations has been analysed on the basis of a data collection table and the case-effect diagram to elaborate on the potential causes of the identified improvement area in depth.

The result of the study shows that employees want to create a better customer value, but the shortcomings that exist are that staff have difficulty accessing information involved, they feel outside and unjustified.

Originality/Value

Our research provides insights to an important field within quality management – how is the value of management commitment transmitted into methodologies?BackgroundCommon statements in quality management presentations are:

- Leadership is necessary

- It’s important for quality management to have engaged leaders and employees. One way of describing a quality management system is to see it as a combination of values, methodologies and tools. A question to study is which the methodologies and tools are that translate the leadership and employee commitment into action. The value of: “Committed leadership” is a core value in quality management. Another important value is: “Let everybody be committed”. These values could be seen as the values relating to human behaviour as in contrast to other values focusing on quality technology issues. The value of: “Let everybody be committed” tells us that it is important for employees to feel needed, to be able to take responsibility and to be informed – but how do these methodologies and tools look like?

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to carry out a critical analysis of the methodologies and tools that quality management proposes as support to the values of “Committed leadership” and “Let everybody be committed”.

Methodology/Approach

We have carried out a literature study of books commonly used in university courses in quality management. Focus has been on identifying methodologies that support the values “Committed leadership” and “Let everybody be committed”. We have also looked at other values and supporting methodologies and tools as defined in the “Corner stone model”, Bergman & Klefsjö (2003).

Findings

It seems that quality literature is not very clear on how to engage employees and how to motivate them. Preliminary findings indicate that quality management still is relying heavily on quality methodologies and tools supporting the value of decisions based on facts and the value on continuous improvement. Quality gurus like W.E. Deming and J.Juran have claimed that only 10-15% of the operational problems can be solved at the operational level with the rest being system and management problems. This could indicate that more focus should be on how employees can affect their work situation rather than teaching them quality tools. Quality methodologies and tools are only of help when management leads in such a way that employees are empowered and encouraged to do the right things willingly. When the literature for quality management is analysed we find that leadership issues are not taken up very much. Not more than about 2 – 5% of the pages in the literature deal with leadership. Also, focus of the parts dedicated to leadership is mostly on check lists for important things to do and to know as a leader – like motivation. But there is very little to read about in what way you can motivate your employees or how you can acquire the required leadership capability.

Limitations

The study is limited to the theories found in the most frequently used quality management literature in Sweden.

Value

The topic takes up important success factors for quality management – how to make practise out of the guiding values of management and employee commitment.

Background

Leadership is the process of directing the behaviour of others toward the accomplishment of some common objectives. Leadership is influencing people to get things done to a standard and quality above their norm - and doing it willingly. Leading others is not simply a matter of style, or following some how-to guides or recipes. Ineffectiveness of leaders seldom results from a lack of know-how or how-to, nor is it typically due to inadequate managerial skills. Leadership is even not about creating a great vision. It is about creating conditions under which all your followers can perform independently and effectively toward a common objective. Leadership is also a never ending process of self-studies with the purpose to know yourself and your behaviour as individual and in a group better. Understanding group dynamics is essential in order to inspire employees into higher levels of teamwork. It could be argued that for any improvement, leadership forms the main resource basis on which success of change relies.

Gotland University has during several years carried out well frequented distance courses in leadership. The typical student is a person with a degree working in some organisation, often in a managerial position. Course assessments have indicated appreciation and a high level of student satisfaction.

Purpose

The question is if leadership theories and methodologies learnt really are put into use when the course is finished. The main purpose of this research is to explore how current leadership teaching is transferred into practical use in organisations. Another purpose is to see how current management attitudes correspond with the main theories. The results will help to improve the understanding of the practical relevance of different parts of leadership theory. Additionally the role of pedagogy and contextual factors when putting leadership theory into practise are highlighted.

Methodology/Approach

An alumni database for former students is used for sending a questionnaire asking for the relevance of different topics. Focus is on seeing what parts of theory have been used and to what extent. Based on the first results from the questionnaire a number of interviews are carried out to find out more detailed areas of improvement relating both to what theory to focus on and how to learn. Additionally randomly chosen written reports from courses are used to identify current managerial behaviour.

Findings

Preliminary findings indicate that theories are being used, but that there is improvement potential (study is still in progress).

Limitations

The study is limited to the theories used in the current courses. Students are practically all mature students already working.

Value

Leadership is a practical issue and it is important to know that what is taught is relevant and that it is being used. This paper gives a good indication of the practical relevance of important parts of current leadership theory.

Student´s learning processes for sustainable knowledgeAnette OxenswärdhAbstract

Introduction: The concept of sustainability has become one of today's most widely used and controversial concepts. It is therefore important to develop activities within all educational contexts in order to increase understanding of the goals for moresustainable practice. This also means that professors themselves must take more responsibility for their assignments, interpret and understand the content of the concept of sustainability and demands for new courses. They need, doubtlessly and naturally, new methods and tools. Traditionally professors plan their lessons, different tasks and how they are to be assessed, entirely themselves. This is now slowly changing not least due sustainability approaches. Today there is demand for more collective learning practices, not only among students, but also among university professors themselves. 

Objective: This paper aims to study how some students are using the course design to create knowledge on Sustainable Business Development, within the division of Quality Technology of the Department of Engineering Sciences at Uppsala University.

Methods: This paper studies Sustainable Business Development a course at Uppsala University in spring 2017, included both theoretical and practical exercises. In this study it was used qualitative and quantitative approaches, inquires, observations,focus group discussions interviews with students as well as documentation over the course design were used as empirical sources.

Results: Students learned through both individual and collective learning processes. Literature studies, scalable learning sequences, organized individually, gave them pre-under- standing and the tools for further knowledge. The discussions in groupsclarified and deepened they understanding of sustainability. They experienced that the whole process of learning got easier to manage by collective learning. Research shows that there is a need for balancing these two learning processes to maximizestudents’ learning. The processes of collective learning seem to even support low performing students.Conclusions: The results show that educational organizations are in great need of creating tools and arrange structures and givespace and time for this combined type of learning for all students. This to create understanding for the issues students arelearning in general and not at least on issues of sustainability.

KeywordsIndividual and collective (collaborative) learning; Sustainability; Processes; University course