Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att analysera i vilken utsträckning Kaizen tillämpas i det kvalitetsarbete som bedrivs på Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Capio S:t Görans Sjukhus samt Danderyds Sjukhus AB. Metod: En fallstudie har utförts vid tre sjukhusen i Stockholmsregionen. Primär- och sekundärdata har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer respektive litteratur, rapporter, artiklar och elektroniska källor. Teori: Kaizen är ett synsätt som sätter människan i fokus och arbetar utefter ständigt förbättringsarbete med kundfokusering som högsta prioritet. TQM är en filosofi samt innefattar vägledande principer som innebär att arbeta aktivt med kvalitetsfrågor. Strukturerade modeller används till hjälp för utförandet av förbättringsarbetet. Processorientering innebär att personal från olika funktioner arbetar med flöden kopplat till en speciell produkt eller kund, där effekten blir att optimera flödena istället för funktionerna. Empiri: Empirin belyser de tre sjukhusens organisationsstruktur samt en faktabeskrivning om sjukhusens respektive kvalitetsarbeten. Resultatet som framkommer redogör i vilken utsträckning sjukhusen applicerar Kaizen i sitt arbete. Slutsats: Samtliga av sjukhusen bedriver kvalitetsarbeten som har starka likheter med vad Kaizenfilosofin förespråkar. Sjukhusen anser även att det är viktigt att ta till vara på personalens kompetens och stimulera engagemang och utveckling i deras arbete. Genom att verka för att hela verksamheten är involverad i kvalitetsarbetet ökar det möjligheten till ett bestående resultat.

Social entrepreneurship is given considerable attention within literature and academic research despite that fact it is an area that needs considerable attention and research. The main purpose for societal entrepreneurs is to create societal value but there can be difficulties to understand value creation within the area. Important components within Total Quality Management (TQM) are process orientation and value creation. A TQM perspective with processes in focus provides opportunities to clarify societal value creation within societal entrepreneurship initiatives. The main purpose of this thesis has been to explore how societal value is created within the area of societal entrepreneurship and the underlying purpose has been to contribute to the development of knowledge and understanding about the societal entrepreneurship area. In order to fulfil the purpose one literature case study and three empirical case studies have been conducted with processes in focus. The literature case study was conducted first and it resulted in a theoretical process map based on a process perspective, which showed how societal value was created within a societal entrepreneurship initiative. After that the three empirical case studies were conducted separately and the findings from the empirical case studies were compared with the previously developed theoretical process map. A cross case analysis was made to find out if the process map could be confirmed, developed or rejected. The result of the case studies contributes to earlier findings within research and gives a common, comprehensive and simplified picture of a complex phenomenon and an opportunity to understand how societal value is created. A general overall process map is presented that gives a picture of how value is created within the area of societal entrepreneurship. The result shows the management process and support process fields. The map also shows a main process that is further developed with input, output and sub processes. The studies point out that societal value is created through processes and that societal value creation can be described out of a process orientation perspective. Important components to create societal value have been found to be: 'unidentified needs'; 'knowledge about the context'; 'identified need'; 'an idea or a vision'; and some kind of 'organization' and important activities to create value seem to be: 'being in the context'; 'analysis of knowledge'; 'searching for solution'; 'organize and mobilize'; and 'realize'. Fields where support processes are performed that are of importance in societal value creation have been identified. Those fields are 'creation of financing opportunities'; 'performance of political decisions and acts'; 'development and use of networks'; 'establishment of initiative'; 'creation of media information'; 'development and use of scientific results'; and 'development and use of competence'. The map does have potential for development. Further studies need to be done within the area concerning how societal value is created and to get an even more comprehensive process map of the societal entrepreneurship area but the result presented in this thesis is a start to understanding how societal value is created and to develop knowledge and understanding of the societal entrepreneurship area.

Globally, there are great efforts made by organisations to improve effectiveness and systems to remain competitive in ever-changing business markets. Total quality management (TOM) has become a philosophy that most companies adopt once they reach a state where it would like to have a system where all efforts are made to satisfy customers or add value to customer experiences. An investigation was done at a South African chemical company to ascertain if important philosophies (continuous improvement, customer focus and winning with people) of TOM, which are found to be related to some of the company values, are taken seriously at all levels of the company. The company received a number of complaints from customers about the quality of service and goods supplied and it is of utmost importance to investigate if the concept of TOM is practiced effectively by this company since the implementation of the TOM programme. The study conducted has shown that the company understands the concept of quality and the impact of quality on customer satisfaction. TOM is useful when it is implemented at all levels in a company and was indeed found to be implemented on all company levels in this company. Management support, employee improvement, employee empowerment, process improvement, training and development, cleanliness and organisation, teamwork as well as customer focus are the TOM practices that were found to be highly rated within the company. Responses showed that management communication should be improved to ensure that everyone in the organisation is fully informed about all developments. From the results, it was concluded that the foundation of effective TOM is being practiced by the company except in a few minor cases and, therefore, more focus should be placed on those cases. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010

Globally, there are great efforts made by organisations to improve effectiveness and systems to remain competitive in ever-changing business markets. Total quality management (TOM) has become a philosophy that most companies adopt once they reach a state where it would like to have a system where all efforts are made to satisfy customers or add value to customer experiences. An investigation was done at a South African chemical company to ascertain if important philosophies (continuous improvement, customer focus and winning with people) of TOM, which are found to be related to some of the company values, are taken seriously at all levels of the company. The company received a number of complaints from customers about the quality of service and goods supplied and it is of utmost importance to investigate if the concept of TOM is practiced effectively by this company since the implementation of the TOM programme. The study conducted has shown that the company understands the concept of quality and the impact of quality on customer satisfaction. TOM is useful when it is implemented at all levels in a company and was indeed found to be implemented on all company levels in this company. Management support, employee improvement, employee empowerment, process improvement, training and development, cleanliness and organisation, teamwork as well as customer focus are the TOM practices that were found to be highly rated within the company. Responses showed that management communication should be improved to ensure that everyone in the organisation is fully informed about all developments. From the results, it was concluded that the foundation of effective TOM is being practiced by the company except in a few minor cases and, therefore, more focus should be placed on those cases. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken uppfattning chefer inom offentlig verksamhet har om kvalitetsarbete och hur chefer inom offentlig verksamhet anser att de gör sina medarbetare delaktiga i verksamhetens kvalitetsarbete. Kvalitetsarbete ses idag som en väl integrerad del i de flesta verksamheter, offentliga som privata. Utgångspunkter i studien är Total quality managment (TQM) och transformativt ledarskap. TQM är ett arbetssätt för kvalitetsarbete vilket är omfattande och bygger på en helhet med fokus på kvalitet från hela organisationen. Flera forskare förespråkar delaktighet som en viktig del i kvalitetsarbete. Vägen till kvalitet och medarbetarnas delaktighet i kvalitetsarbetets kantas av utmaningar. Förutsättningarna i en organisation, specifikt inom offentlig verksamhet är varierande och begränsande. Studien är en kvalitativ studie. Som kvalitativ metod har författarna genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med enhetschefer inom offentlig sektor som respondenter. Författarna har använt sig av ett målstyrt urval. Resultatet visar att kvalitetsarbetet anses viktigt men också svårt då en hel del av de aktiviteter som ingår resulterar i administrativa uppgifter istället för kvalitetsutveckling. Ett närvarande ledarskap är en framgångsfaktor gällande skapandet av medarbetarnas delaktighet i kvalitetsarbetet.

In the last decade, the rapid development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has forced its government to implement modern management styles such as Total Quality Management (TQM) to ensure continuous improvement in the provision of healthcare. There is a considerable body of literature that shows the benefits of implementing TQM in hospitals, but there are few empirical studies that show TQM implementation efforts in the healthcare sector. Furthermore, the healthcare literature did not explore the implementation of TQM in a context of gender segregated environment such as the case in KSA. This research project is an exploratory investigation assessing the impact of TQM in a gender segregated healthcare environment such as KSA. The research design used triangulation methods to investigate the problem at hand. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used through field-work and external comparisons. The approach was based on the following: (1) Assessing the level of perception and understanding of TQM principles in several KSA hospitals, taking into account the differences and similarities between the different gender population, (2) Examining the approach to TQM implementation and its degree of effectiveness in four Saudi hospitals to highlight critical factors for effective implementations using the Baldrige assessment method; (3) Benchmarking the Saudi hospital experiences to UK and USA hospitals to highlight key facilitating and inhibiting factors; (4) Using key findings from the previous steps to identify the critical factors and propose a model for TQM implementations in a segregated healthcare environment such as the case in the KSA. The survey research findings show a weak appreciation, awareness and understanding of TQM in managing healthcare organisations by the respondents in the KSA. It clearly shows that many employees in the organisations do riot understand TQM. The degree of emphasis for each quality activity varied and thus more research needs to be done to investigate the importance of each quality activity to a TQM implementation process, as there are varying degrees of emphasis across the board. The KSA case studies show that in implementing organisations, TQM intentions and TQM policy frameworks are generally acceptable. However, the implementation process is generally weak and lacks coordination in the majority of these organisations. It is clear that the majority of the KSA cases have not succeeded in total commitment towards a total quality culture. When compared to the UK and USA hospitals, the majority of the KSA cases show deficiencies in most of the critical activities that form the foundation of a successful quality process. Furthermore, the study indicates three critical factors in KSA hospitals that either did not exist or were not given full attention. The importance of these factors were further validated in the literature. The factors were continuous top management commitment, continuous education and training, and culture awareness. These factors were then used to develop a model for TQM implementation for a segregated healthcare environment. / King Saud University

Det här examensarbetet har fördjupat sig inom två områden inom kvalitetsledning. Det första området är ”ständiga förbättringar av processer”. Den andra är en ”mjuk sida” av kvalitetsledning, värderingarna.En enkät har tagits fram som ska kunna mäta stöd för olika värderingar. Motiveringen att göra det kan vara en önskan att skaffa sig en utgångspunkt i förbättringsarbetet för sitt arbete med förbättring av processer, inom en organisation eller företag. Denna enkät bör även lätt kunna modifieras för att bli användbar även för andra forskare eller organisationer för att mäta en utgångspunkt i sitt förbättringsarbete av processer.I detta arbete har utvärdering gjorts av två olika gruppers resultat för sex olika värderingarna (med enkät samt efterföljande intervjuer) som anses viktiga inom offensiv kvalitetsutveckling.Rapporten ger även förbättringsförslag till organisationen för utveckling av sitt arbete med ständiga förbättringar processer, för några av de värderingar som studien indikerade att stödet behövde utvecklas för. / This degree project has deepened into two areas within quality management (QM). The first area is “Continuous improvements of processes”. The second is a “soft side” of QM, the values.A survey has been developed that can measure support for different values to be able to provide a starting point for the improvement work with process improvement, within an organization or company. This survey can easily by using the same methodology as used in this work, being modified to be useful for other researchers or organizations.In this work, evaluation of results, from two different groups has been made, of support for six values (using questionnaires and subsequent interviews) as considered important in QM.The report also provides improvement suggestions to the organization for development of the work of “Continuous improvements of processes”, regarding some of the QM-values which is proposed to improve. / <p>2020-06-26</p>

This study examines the relationship between organisational culture and TQM implementation barriers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting TQM implementation. For TQM implementation to take root effectively, the critical role of organisational culture is widely recognised. The existence of pitfalls and obstacles (barriers) to implementing TQM is also widely recognized, as is the importance of understanding these TQM implementation barriers. Nevertheless, whilst many TQM implementation models and frameworks have been designed and proposed, no study has been located in the literature that has systematically examined the relationship between organisational culture and TQM implementation barriers. This theoretical lapse in the TQM literature necessitates an investigation of the direction and significance of the relationship which can help in devising more informed TQM implementation models. In this context, a quantitative research methodology was adopted to examine the profiles of organisational culture and of TQM implementation barriers in organisations in Bahrain and to examine the relationship between these variables. Bahrain is presently going through a rapid expansion in quality management system adoption. Accordingly, the research uses four constructs of organisational culture as independent variables and six constructs of TQM implementation barriers identified through the literature as dependent variables. A set of hypotheses was developed describing the expected relationships between these two sets of variables. The study adopted a positivist, deductive approach using an online survey questionnaire to obtain quantitative data for hypothesis testing. The research instrument was assessed for validity and reliability through structured interviews. Responses to the survey were obtained from 325 organisations located in Bahrain. Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) version 16.0 was used to test the measurement model using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and to test the structural model using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Both models showed a very good fit to the data, with good construct validity and reliability. The findings of the study showed that group culture, which is believed to be an ‘ideal’ culture for TQM implementation helps decrease employee barriers, information barriers and customer related barriers as predicted. However group culture wasn’t found to help decrease top management barriers. Rational culture was found to decrease top management barriers as predicted but it wasn’t found to help decrease employee and customer barriers. The findings confirm the significant impact of hierarchical culture in the Bahrain context in decreasing planning and process management barriers. Developmental culture’s potential to lower employee and customer barriers was observed but was not found to be statistically significant. This research makes several contributions in both academic and practical terms. Theoretically, positioning organisational culture as an antecedent of TQM implementation barriers, this study is the first holistic approach that attempts to empirically investigate which type of organisational culture is related to which TQM implementation barriers. Understanding the nature, strength and direction of these relationships can help to inform and support future TQM implementation attempts. Practically, this research will benefit organisations who have not been able to fully realise TQM, or who are in the process of planning the introduction of TQM. The findings of the study can help Bahraini organisations to realise the long term quality objectives of the Bahrain Centre of Excellence’s Vision 2030 programme. Furthermore, the study has contributed a new empirically tested scale for measuring TQM implementation barriers - a valuable tool on its own, or in conjunction with the organisational culture profile assessment tool - for both practitioners wishing to examine their readiness for TQM or progress in creating a TQM ethos, and for future researchers wishing to extend our understanding of the influence of TQM barriers and/or culture on major organisational improvement interventions. It is expected that replication of this study in other countries and regions with different culture and context may help in developing an improved model of TQM implementation. Implications for managers and future research are advanced.

In the last decade, the rapid development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has forced its government to implement modern management styles such as Total Quality Management (TQM) to ensure continuous improvement in the provision of healthcare. There is a considerable body of literature that shows the benefits of implementing TQM in hospitals, but there are few empirical studies that show TQM implementation efforts in the healthcare sector. Furthermore, the healthcare literature did not explore the implementation of TQM in a context of gender segregated environment such as the case in KSA. This research project is an exploratory investigation assessing the impact of TQM in a gender segregated healthcare environment such as KSA. The research design used triangulation methods to investigate the problem at hand. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used through field-work and external comparisons. The approach was based on the following: (1) Assessing the level of perception and understanding of TQM principles in several KSA hospitals, taking into account the differences and similarities between the different gender population, (2) Examining the approach to TQM implementation and its degree of effectiveness in four Saudi hospitals to highlight critical factors for effective implementations using the Baldrige assessment method; (3) Benchmarking the Saudi hospital experiences to UK and USA hospitals to highlight key facilitating and inhibiting factors; (4) Using key findings from the previous steps to identify the critical factors and propose a model for TQM implementations in a segregated healthcare environment such as the case in the KSA. The survey research findings show a weak appreciation, awareness and understanding of TQM in managing healthcare organisations by the respondents in the KSA. It clearly shows that many employees in the organisations do riot understand TQM. The degree of emphasis for each quality activity varied and thus more research needs to be done to investigate the importance of each quality activity to a TQM implementation process, as there are varying degrees of emphasis across the board. The KSA case studies show that in implementing organisations, TQM intentions and TQM policy frameworks are generally acceptable. However, the implementation process is generally weak and lacks coordination in the majority of these organisations. It is clear that the majority of the KSA cases have not succeeded in total commitment towards a total quality culture. When compared to the UK and USA hospitals, the majority of the KSA cases show deficiencies in most of the critical activities that form the foundation of a successful quality process. Furthermore, the study indicates three critical factors in KSA hospitals that either did not exist or were not given full attention. The importance of these factors were further validated in the literature. The factors were continuous top management commitment, continuous education and training, and culture awareness. These factors were then used to develop a model for TQM implementation for a segregated healthcare environment.

<p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>Overtime the execution and control of business activities to meet and even exceed customer satisfac-tion has become an absolute top priority. This is because with an increase in the demand for diverse products and services of quality in unprecedented numbers, there is an automatic injection of complexi-ty into the activities and processes which companies undertake in order to fulfill customer satisfaction. This complexity which could be logistical in nature is usually centered on the provision of quality prod-ucts and services on a timely basis for customer satisfaction. In order to keep this complexity aspect in check while fulfilling customer satisfaction, there is the need to manage the different facets of complex-ity that relate to quality and agility.</p><p><strong>Purpose</strong></p><p>The purpose of this study is to understand the managerial actions on the logistical challenges of quality and agility in a Newspaper Distribution Company.</p><p><strong>Method</strong></p><p>In order to fulfill the purpose, the authors undertook a qualitative-single case study following an induc-tive approach. Interviews were conducted with two managers and these were basically face-to-face in-terviews though we also conducted some of the interviews by phone.</p><p><strong>Findings</strong></p><p>Managing complexity challenges of quality and agility requires the utilization of Total Quality Manage-ment (TQM), Just-in-Time (JIT) and Information flow (IF). Through the utilization of TQM, quality standards are enhanced through continuous improvement and the pursuit of excellence in the activities of the company. JIT as a philosophy helps in the elimination of waste and in the speeding up of processes within a company’s supply chain that result to the timely delivery of goods and services to customers in order to enhance customer satisfaction. Also, Information flow through the aid of diverse technologies such as mobile phones, radio phones, the internet, the World Wide Web, Customer Rela-tionship Management systems, Structured Query Language relational database but also word of mouth transmission have helped in the facilitation of decision making in the company relating to the delivery of quality products and services in an agile or responsive manner for customer satisfaction.</p><p><strong>Practical and Theoretical Implication</strong></p><p>The attainment of the requisites of agility while maintaining delivery quality may not be sufficient to enhance customer satisfaction. The information in the model provides management with a pathway to follow in solving logistical challenges towards enhancing customer satisfaction. The study offers theory development opportunities.</p><p><strong>Originality</strong></p><p>A model of logistical complexity management was designed for the attainment of customer satisfaction.</p>