Quality and equality? : A gender perspective on quality management research

• Purpose: The aim of this paper is twofold, to investigate the representatio n of female researchers in QMOD publications and to describe in what way a gender perspective has beenapplied within QMOD publications.Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is based on a literature review an d analysis ofthe papers in the QMOD proceedings for ever y other year from 2012 to 2018. After excluding papers where gender could not be identified for the first or second author, the final sampleincluded 555 papers. The papers were analysed with respect to gender in authorship, nationality, type of paper, QM research area, domain and gender perspective. Analysis of quantitative data was made with SPSS and Chi square testing. The papers with a gender perspective were further categorized through qualitativ e content analysis.Findings: The quantitative analysis showed that gender representation of first authors were 43.2% female and 56.8% male. Males accounted for most of the single authored papers (61%). The most common research areas and domains differed between genders. Female studied lean and research on employee and student related areas and the domains education and health care to a greater extent than males. Males, to a greater extent studied quality management in general and reliability and safety related topics and the domain manufacturing. Eighteen papers with a gender perspective were identified. These originated from 13 different countries and there were equal number of female and male first authors . A major topic was customer or user focus in pr oduct or service development with a dominance of papers focusing on the service sector.Practical implications: For researchers the results of the study demonstrate that there is stilla general need to increase the awareness of gender issues in QM research, both in terms of ensuring that ge nder issues are integrated in research projects and that any gender is not underrepresented in specific research roles. In product development there may also be a nuntapped potential in further quality development of products and services by focusing more on gender.Originality/Value of paper: There are no similar studies within the QM field. Gender is an area receiving increased interest within academia in terms of reques ts from research funding and increased awareness in higher education. The study shows that t here is a need for increased attention on gender issues within QM research.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Tillförlitlighets- och kvalitetsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Reliability and Maintenance (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Authorship

female

conference review

QMOD

academia

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)