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The purpose of this paper is to present a study of how Six Sigma influences job satisfaction among employees at three large companies with manufacturing units in Sweden that have used different implementation strategies.

The study was performed using a survey distributed to those affected by the implementation at the three company sites, including those not directly involved in any Six Sigma activities.

Employees participating in Six Sigma feel positive changes in many aspects of job satisfaction. The Black Belts (BBs) felt, on the average, positive changes in almost all the tested areas. The largest changes are related to personal and new skill development, influence on work duties and enjoying the work. BBs also feel more recognition from management. Employees not involved in the Six Sigma projects do, on average, also feel positively influenced by Six Sigma, but the tendency is not as clear.

The results constitute a platform for further studies on the relation between Six Sigma applications and job satisfaction due to the different approaches used in the three studied plants.

The positive results should help alleviate concerns of job satisfaction due to implementation of Six Sigma.

The paper fills a knowledge gap concerning the effect of Six Sigma on employees' well being and job satisfaction.

Emphasis on quality improvement has been one of the most characteristic features of higher education policy in Nordic and other European countries during the 1990s. In Sweden, the universities’ work with quality management has been evaluated for several years. In January 2001, the National Agency of Higher Education in Sweden introduced a new comprehensive system for quality assessment. The Swedish assessment system stresses that the assessment should have as a corner‐stone the specific prerequisites for each university and subject, e.g. business administration and their development strategy. The comprehensive quality assessments of Swedish higher education institutions are discussed together with stimulating innovation and continuous improvement of higher education.

The ability of small businesses to make and adjust to the paradigm shift needed to benefit from the Japanese production theory has been questioned in the literature. Zangwill (1992) questioned the limits of the Japanese Production Theory (JPT) and in a subsequent paper (Zangwill, 1994) held on to his argument about the limits of the Japanese Production Theory. In this paper, the Japanese Production Theory is first discussed, followed by a discussion of the consistency between the traditional EOQ theory and the Japanese production theory, critique of the Zangwill’s argument, and issues related to the relevance of the Japanese production theory to small businesses.

The purpose of this paper is to provide various perspectives on the future of quality professionals from a number of leading academics and practitioners around the world.

The approach taken was to collate opinions from a number of leading academics and practitioners from different countries. It was also important to ensure that all participants in the study had a good knowledge and expertise in the field of quality and operations management. Most of the participants had over 30 years of experience in quality and related disciplines and some of them are pioneers in their respective fields of quality management/engineering.

As the global economic forces were radically changing, it is essential that quality managers face the future with quality-based integrated management programmes that fit the new business era rather than continuing with systems that may have worked in the past.

Due to time constraints, the number of people participated in the study was relatively small. However, the author is currently pursuing a larger study looking into the future of quality professionals within the context of Scottish Manufacturing and Service companies.

The paper provides an excellent resource for many researchers and practitioners equally who are engaged in research and applications on this topic. Moreover it was observed during the review of current literature that very few studies are related to the topic on the future of quality professionals and their future roles in modern organisations.

The application of a process view, as complement to the traditional functional division, is often a way to highlight organisational improvement potential. This paper examines the process of providing university level education in quality management, using Sweden as an example. The purpose is to assess the performance of university education as part of the supply chain of providing quality management to a society. This has been done by studying the actual offering compared to a notional benchmark of best performance. Preliminary results indicate that there could be a significant improvement potential in both providing more education of the right type and in the right way. A lot of similar basic courses are given but with varying names, possibly reflecting difficulties in defining the area of quality management and its constituents. An important reason for the detected improvement potential seems to be the lack of ownership of the studied supply chain of providing university level quality education to the Swedish society.