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This paper seeks to find out which factors influence the willingness of professionals to contribute to a certification process and to understand the rationale behind this willingness.

Based on literature, prerequisites are formulated for the willingness of professionals to contribute to certification. These are compared with the results of a study among lecturers at Universities of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands and Flanders about their willingness to contribute to accreditation of their schools. This study combines survey and Delphi research.

Professionals agree on the added value of certification systems. They are willing to contribute to the certification process, provided that a set of conditions is fulfilled.

The case focuses on large organisations for which certification is obligatory. The findings may not apply in small or medium‐sized organisations or if the main driver for certification is internal improvement. Further research is needed to verify the generalisation of the results to other sectors and countries.

Research has shown that it is difficult to motivate professionals to contribute to certification. Little research has been done on the reasons why. The paper provides more insight into the difficulties that organizations face to commit their professionals to become involved in certification and turns these into requirements to be fulfilled to achieve commitment. These are relevant for organisations, which need the support of their professional employees to achieve management system certification.

The purpose of this paper is to present the framework of a fourth paradigm since the existing three paradigms in quality management are not sufficient anymore to understand what happened in the past and surely fail to understand what is happening at the moment and needed in future.

A literature review has been undertaken on different visions on quality management that are used. The underlying principles have led to three quality paradigms. Literature on quadrant models is studied to place the three existing paradigms and identify the possible characteristics of the fourth.

One can discern four quality paradigms in quality management: the Empirical Paradigm, the Reference Paradigm, the Reflective Paradigm and the Emergence Paradigm. The use of these paradigms differs according to the context. Together they form a concept of Total Quality Management. At the moment the Emergence Paradigm has not had enough attention although it might be the best equipped to find new ways of working for the organisations in the current context.

In the literature review the authors selected seven journals in the Business Source Premier database: Total Quality Management (Total Quality Management & Business Excellence); the Academy of Management Review; Product and Operations Management; Organisational Dynamics; the Harvard Business Review; the Sloan Management Review and Organisational Behavior and Performance. In the advanced search mode the authors entered two subjects: “quality management” and “paradigm”. The selected results (in total 289 articles) were examined for its fitness for answering the questions above. That resulted in a selection of 26 articles that are being used in the literature review.

The Emergence Paradigm can be further investigated on its use for quality management in organisations in times of emergent change. Some first insights have been presented here.

The Emergence Paradigm can have impact beyond the field of quality management.

The paper provides new insights in the essence of quality management in times of change and clarity on the usability of the thoughts and tools of four different paradigms in the twenty-first century.

The purpose of this research is to explore the deployment of the total quality management (TQM) paradigm in the TQM Journal in relation to the context of the 21st century. The study builds on the theoretical framework of the four quality paradigms that together compose TQM. The four paradigms differ in their effectiveness based on the context in which they are used. In a complex context, one would expect the reflective and the emergence paradigm to flourish. The TQM Journal is one of the leading scientific journals on TQM. If the assumption that the reflective and emergent paradigm would flourish in a complex environment is correct, one will see that represented in the past five years of scientific research in that magazine.

The TQM Journal articles of the past five years from January 2016 till January 2021 have been chosen as the scope of an exploratory review. The author assessed the title and abstract of all articles based on the characteristics of the four quality paradigms, as described in the theoretical framework. If the title and abstract did not provide enough data to take the decision for the assessment, the whole article has been taken into account. The results have been collated, summarized and reported. Based on the results, the author explores the possible patterns.

In total, 283 articles from 2016 to 2021 (from Volume 28, Issue 1 to Volume 33, Issue 1) were included in this study. In total, 45 were read fully to be able to characterize the article. Most of the studies relate the tertiary (33.3%) and secondary (27.9%) sectors. Healthcare was the sector in 32 of the cases (11.3%). Most studies have been conducted in Europe (n = 82, 28.9%) and Asia (n = 58, 20.5%). Within Europe, Italy was the most prolific country with, respectively, 25 (30.8%) of the articles. The USA and Canada only had five articles in these five years (1.8%). Many articles did not specify the region. More than half of the articles (52.4%) worked with surveys, questionnaires or other methods to involve the customer in the research; 16 articles (5.6%) used experts in the field through expert panels and such to collect data from. In total, 107 articles (37.8%) did involve no other stakeholders than the researchers themselves. Eight studies (2.8%) used action research or co-design methodology to create optimal stakeholder participation. Based on the data, four patterns can be discovered: the context sensitivity of the articles, reflexivity, coping with uncertainty and co-creation.

It is acknowledged that the articles in the study were published in just one scientific journal. One can expect that this will be represented in other journals on TQM. Still, it would be interesting to conduct a follow-up study in other journals on TQM and compare the results. The research is done by one subjective researcher.

Research on TQM should take the complexity of the context into account. For that purpose, researchers should focus more on the emergence paradigm within TQM.

This study is the first to investigate TQM as a holistic paradigm, including the empirical, reflective, reference and emergence paradigm in TQM research.

The purpose of this paper is to support the ongoing dialogue and shed light on the different views on integrated care. An overarching definition of integrated care is proposed combining the ways of thinking of the four quality paradigms the authors identify. The idea of epistemic fluency offers a way-out of ongoing discussions about “what integration is”.

Four paradigms of quality are presented and applied to healthcare. Epistemic fluency is proposed as the capacity to understand, switch between and combine different kinds of knowledge. The authors compare previously developed definitions of integrated care to the various combinations of paradigms.

All four paradigms of care quality are present in healthcare and in the most used definitions of integrated care. The Reflective Paradigm and the Emergence Paradigm receive least attention. Some definitions combine more than one paradigm. An overarching definition of integrated care is proposed.

In this paper, only the most prominent definitions of integration have been considered.

Integration research and practice requires a widely accepted definition of integrated care, embracing all four paradigms of care quality. Our suggestion provides a common foundation that may prevent misunderstanding.

The use of quality management paradigms to frame the debate on defining integrated care is new and leads to new insights for teaching, research and practice.

The question answered in this paper is: what does the concept of emergence mean in the context of total quality management? The purpose of this paper is to develop a definition for emergence by discovering the structure of the phenomenon and to suggest its implications for total quality management.

The concept analysis follows the method proposed by Walker and Avant (2014). A first step of the method is a general search on the internet and a literature review executed in scientific databases. Due to the limited search results in the field of quality management a support search has been done in three quality management journals and the method of berry picking was added.

This concept analysis provides attributes of the concept of emergence as well as antecedents and consequences. Emergence is the phenomenon where out of a network of interacting internal and external elements in the course of time arises a coherent new pattern, that is unpredictable, unexpected, unplanned and irreducible to the separate parts. To make emergence happen an organization needs to react to a complex environment that is in un-order far-from-equilibrium. It needs to be (part of) a complex adaptive system. Emergence might rather lead to a (dynamic) bandwidth wherein the result moves, than to a (static) new order.

In the literature review little is found about the consequences of emergence. A hypothesis is formulated in this area that needs further research.

Only as the authors know and agree upon the definition and meaning of the concept of emergence and the characteristics of the Emergence Paradigm the authors can effectively adjust or develop quality management instruments and tools to support or facilitate emergence in complex organizations.

There is a limited amount of literature on systems theory and complexity theory in quality management. Even less on the phenomenon of emergence. There is no concept analysis on the subject of emergence.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an idea on the next step in quality management, based on the experiences of the last 100 years.

A literature review has been undertaken on the history of quality management so far and on trends for the near future. Based on these findings a model has been designed to describe different elements of quality management. A focus is on the human aspects, like vision on the employee, roles of the quality manager and the skills required.

After the control, continuous improvement and commitment paradigm the time has come for a new paradigm based on the importance of the context.

The paper provides more insight into the near future of quality management in times of emergent change.

This paper provides an overview on the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) program components/mechanisms and their overall effect on learning outcomes in a developing country context.

Using secondary data, this descriptive case study integrates the realistic evaluation framework of Pawson and Tilley (1997) with Total Quality Management (TQM) frameworks.

Ethiopia ' s TVET system adopts/adapts international best practices. Following the implementation of the 2008 TVET strategy, the proportion of formal TVET graduates who were recognized as competent by the assessment and certification system increased from 17.42 percent in 2009/2010 to 40.23 percent in 2011/2012. Nevertheless, there is regional variation.

Outcome-based TVET reforms that are based on TQM frameworks could improve learning outcome achievements in developing countries by enhancing awareness, coordination, integration, flexibility, participation, empowerment, accountability and a quality culture. Nevertheless, this research is limited by lack of longitudinal data on competency test results. There is also a need for further investigation into the practice of TQM and the sources of differences in internal effectiveness across TVET institutions.

Our description of the Ethiopian reform experience, which is based on international best experience, could better inform policy makers and practitioners in TVET elsewhere in Africa.

A realistic evaluation of TVET programs, the articulation of the mechanisms, especially based on TQM, that affect TVET effectiveness would add some insight into the literature. The evidence we have provided from the Ethiopian case is also fresh.

The purpose of this paper is to define what factors cause willingness and/or resistance among lecturers in universities towards external evaluation systems, especially accreditation.

A model has been designed to describe possible factors of willingness and/or resistance towards accreditation based on Ajzen and Metselaar. A literature review has been undertaken on the effects of external evaluation like ISO 9000 as well as accreditation systems such as Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and European Quality Improvement System. A questionnaire has been administered to a group of 63 lecturers from three departments at Fontys University in The Netherlands. The results of this preliminary survey have been presented to 1,500 academics in The Netherlands and Flanders to collect empirical data.

Resistance to accreditation can be found in the consequences of accreditation for the work of the lecturer (workload), negative emotions (stress and insecurity); the lack of knowledge and experience (help from specialists is needed); and lack of acceptance (other paradigm).

The paper provides more insight into the difficulties that organizations, especially universities, have to commit their employees to external evaluation. It might be possible to generalize the findings to other professionals in other organizations. Little research in this field has been undertaken so far.