| 1. |
- Bäckström, Ingela, 1963-, et al.
(author)
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Capturing Value-based leadership in Practice: : Insights from developing and applying an AI-interview guide
- 2017
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In: Challenges and Opportunities of Quality in the 4th Industrial Revolution. - 9789176230862
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AbstractOne of the most critical aspects for building quality and innovation in organizations is the role of values. Performance suffers when organizations fail to prioritize values. A challenge for many leaders is to understand deep-rooted values together with what they are and how they are developed. These deep-rooted values are reflected in the behaviors, language and signs occurring in the organization and can be seen as the organizations culture. When a culture is shaped, leadership is central and the managers in the organization are vital. Managers in an organization affect the predominating culture through their behaviors and approach to their co-workers. This make it interesting to try to find out underlying values held by managers striving for good leadership and performance. Underlying values can be unconscious and taken for granted, and thereby hard to ask about. By using an interview guide inspired by Appreciative Inquiry (AI) (an approach based on generativity and positivity), underlying values and the leadership used by top managers can be discovered. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the results from the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) inspired interviews to explore the underlying values held by top manager and to identify soft aspects of leadership. Methodology/approach – Top managers were interviewed as a part of a research project with the aim to support the development of value-based leadership that integrates company values, organizational culture, customer needs and sustainable development. A structured interview guide, inspired by AI, was developed and used to pinpoint their motivation and vision of a good organization in order to understand the values the leaders had and to identify soft aspects of leadership. The interviews were analyzed in workshops with the whole research group and structured and visualized through affinity chart. Findings – The results show underlying values held by top managers and identified soft aspects of leadership. Practical implications – The presented interview guide can be used to identify the top managers underlying values and the presented results from the interviews can be used to inspire other leaders to develop their leadership in their striving of good leadership and effective organizations.
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| 2. |
- Hedlund, Christer, 1964-, et al.
(author)
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Continuous Improvement of Leadership : Evaluation of peer-coaching experiments
- 2017
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper investigates continuous improvement of leadership with the aid of coaching and specifically peer-coaching as a model for leadership improvement. The paper is based on the idea of experimental learning both as a tool to motivate, educate and inspire leaders in two studied organizations. Learning-by-doing along with reflection has formed the basis for leadership improvement and leadership awareness in this study. The concept of Developing- by-doing have been used to help leaders design the foundation of an organizational specific coaching model.
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| 3. |
- Ingelsson, Pernilla, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Truly changing the culture – learnings from a value-based top leader
- 2017
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In: 20th QMOD conference.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Both TQM and Lean are said to rest on a number of values that in turn are said to be the building blocks of the organizational culture needed to successfully apply TQM or Lean in an organization. The reason why applying Lean or TQM fail is frequently explained by the lack of focusing on values and culture and instead too big focus on tools and methods. In this context, leadership is often mentioned as one if the main keys to change the organizational culture as the leaders in organizations are the bearer of values. There is also a strong connection between values held and behaviors shown by the leaders and the co-workers in the organization. So the question arises; how come it´s so hard to make the change in leadership behaviors and by that the organizational culture? At the same time, there are leaders succeeding with consciously changing the culture and the values held by the co-workers. What can we learn from such a leaders that have succeeded in changing an exciting culture in an organization?Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the values held by and the ways of working used by a top leader (COO) with the aim to change the organizational culture.Methodology/approach – The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a successful Lean company was interviewed in order to identify the managers´ values as well as ways of working. A developed interview guide was used to get an understanding of the values the leader had and to identify “other” softer aspects of his leadership. The results from the study was analyzed by the researchers, first by each researcher individually, then in workshops as a group.Findings – The results show that the COO appears to have an understanding about the connection between values and behaviors something shown by the close connection between the identified ways of working and values. The result also shows ways of working to achieve a cultural change, were the use of ROFO can be seen as a driving force for this. The COO displays a leadership and a value-base much in line with Lean leadership and value-base.Practical implications – The presented results can be used by leaders in different types of organization in their work with developing the culture and leadership.
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| 4. |
- Lilja, Johan, 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Metaphors We Manage and Develop Quality by : Screening and Elaborating on the Metaphors of Quality Management
- 2017
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: Metaphors are a powerful and human way of understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. In Quality Management (QM) several metaphors are used to describe and bring to life the often abstract QM concepts and systems in clearer terms. These metaphors are undoubtedly of great importance for how QM is understood, communicated and practiced. They can also be assumed to have a significant impact on the perceived attractiveness of, and engagement in, QM systems. However, the metaphors of QM have seldom been systematically screened or put in focus, neither the topic of a critical discussion. The purpose of this paper is hence to contribute with a screening of the metaphors currently used, within QM literature and in practice among QM leaders, and then elaborate on their potential for improvement and development.Methodology/Approach: The paper is based on a literature review combined with interviews of QM leaders.Findings: The paper highlights that the current QM metaphors provide intuitive associations to properties such as stability, shelter, and structure but not to the important dynamic properties of QM, such as learning, or to the critical role of people in QM. It also provides suggestions for further improvements and development.Value of the Paper: The paper highlights the area of metaphors within QM as an important area for future research. It also provides insights concerning the successful use and selection of metaphors in future QM practice.
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| 5. |
- Snyder, Kristen, 1964-, et al.
(author)
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Storytelling : a co-creative process to support value-based leadership
- 2017
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In: International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences. - 1756-669X .- 1756-6703. ; 9:3/4, s. 484-497
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify constraints and possibilities to develop a value-based leadership in manufacturing using storytelling as a co-creative method and process.Design/methodology/approachA multi-site case study was conducted in which storytelling was used as a data collection tool and co-creative process to explore dimensions in the company’s cultures that could provide a deeper understanding about the constraints and possibilities that exist for developing value-based leadership in manufacturing.FindingsStorytelling has a positive impact on leadership and communication highlighting important aspects of the organizational culture to support sustainable development and innovation.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates how storytelling can be used by leaders in manufacturing to build cultures of innovation and sustainability. And identifies constrains and possibilities for developing value-based leadership.
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| 6. |
- Bäckström, Ingela, 1963-, et al.
(author)
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Enhancing Sustainable Quality Culture
- 2017
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2015, a project was initiated to explore how quality can be enhanced in Swedish businesses by developing an internal coaching process to support value-based leadership development. The three–year project, financed by The Knowledge Foundation, is a research and development partnership consisting of three Swedish manufacturing companies and Mid Sweden University. Results presented in the poster address both the process and outcomes from this project.PurposeTo present the results in changes in a company's value-base two years into a project with the purpose to explore how quality can be enhanced when a value-based leadership is integrated with sustainable practices.Method:A number of activities were completed in the company. A survey was designed to measure SQD values as an indicator for value based leadership. The survey were administered both at the start of the project and then again one year later to measure changes in leadership and values. The results from the survey were first analyzed using SPSS (Cronbach Alpha and T-test) and then in relation to completed activities. This was done by the research team together with management team in the company.Results:The results will be the presentation of completed activities within the company as well as results from the two measurements shows that the mean of the measured values are higher in the second measurement when it comes to the whole factory. When it comes to the managers it is the opposite regarding how they look at their role when it comes to the values: Leadership commitment and Participation of everybody.Conclusions so far:Measuring soft aspects helps to focus on culture and values.The wording of the statements can affect culture.Talking about leadership in connection to an organizations unique context initiates new dialog forms, topics, and gives the leaders a “leadership language”.Focusing on positive aspects of leadership creates energy and a solution focused climate.Statistically significant results can be shown after such a short period as one year.Increased pride in the team and the work-place!Further investigate correlations between factors.
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| 7. |
- Mårtensson, Anna, 1978-
(author)
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Insights in Lean values: Exploring links to sustainable development
- 2017
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The Quality Management initiative Lean is a popular method used by organisations to engage in organisational development. The Lean philosophy is grounded in numerous values. The organisations must implement and apply these values to achieve the desired results. Lean poses a dilemma in that many organisations fail to implement it because they fail to change, and they fail to maintain their new organisational culture. Lean's values are linked to sustainable development principles, and organisations that have implemented Lean have achieved results consistent with a more sustainable society. Previous studies have shown that more research is needed in areas in which business leaders require more support and knowledge so that they can combine these areas to strive for sustainable development. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute a deeper understanding of the application of Lean values when implementing Lean, and the potential to interlink to sustainability theory. To achieve this purpose, studies have been conducted in three organisations. Data were collected through a survey, interviews, and a systematic literature review was conducted that was also used to analyse findings from the empirical data. The results have been presented in four different papers. The findings provide deeper knowledge of Lean values during Lean implementation. They also provide a picture of the complexity in the inter-linkages between the values embodied in Lean and sustainable development principles. This thesis shows that the length of time that Lean has been implemented affects the kind and extent to which values are visible in an organisation: more values are visible in organisations that have worked the longest following Lean implementation. It has also been found that the values articulated in an organisation’s vision and strategy for implementing Lean have a greater perceived presence among employees than other Lean values. As well, differences were found in the presence of Lean values between the operational level and the strategic level of an organisation. However, findings indicated that the Lean values that were visible were more often fragmented rather than a pure value as presented in the theory. The findings also showed that interlinkages between some of sustainability principles and Lean values are more visible in one of the two organisational levels. For example, ´Waste reduction´ was only visible at the operational level. Implementing and applying Lean takes time and requires a change in the organisational culture. This thesis concluded that the Lean values of the ‘System view’ and ‘Long-term thinking’ have low presence and are not a part of the values considered most important to employees when implementing Lean. For organisations at the beginning of their implementation, this knowledge may be good to consider as failures with implementation are often due to the fact that change in organisational culture does not happen as intended. This finding indicates that there are gaps in the knowledge among employees about the important links between Lean and sustainable development. It is difficult to draw boundaries between the values when they should be recognized as a system.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Warne, Maria, 1957-, et al.
(author)
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Participation and support – associations with Swedish pupils’ positive health
- 2017
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In: International Journal of Circumpolar Health. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1239-9736 .- 2242-3982. ; 76:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- From the perspective of salutogenesis, schools have opportunities to create supportive environments for health and well-being, but there is a need for more knowledge about positive health determinants in the school setting. The aim of this study was to analyse adolescents’ self-reported positive health and its association with supportive factors in the school environment. Data was derived from a cross-sectional study in which pupils were aged 12–16 (n=1527). A positive health scale was used to examine the association of positive health with the following determinants: classroom participation; teacher support; peer support; parental support; and personal relative affluence. Data was analysed with multiple logistic regression. The results showed that positive health was associated with classroom participation and support from teachers and parents more commonly among boys than girls. All determinants were significantly associated with pupils’ positive health. The conclusion is that students’ positive health is strongly associated with support from the school. Classroom participation and support are major concerns for the health of pupils, and it is essential to develop these aspects of the school environment.
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