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An increasing number of communities use total quality management (TQM) concepts, traditionally connected with business and industry, for societal development. An outstanding example in Sweden is the community of Åseda, where non‐profit organisations, companies, and the public sector collaborate to break negative trends, mainly with the help of typical TQM methodologies. This paper presents a study of the effects experienced by a selection of residents, being one part of a larger study of TQM as a support for societal development. It shows that the general effects are experienced as positive, and so are all the detailed ones, having to do with wellbeing in Åseda. A general conclusion is therefore that these respondents are highly motivated for societal improvement work, although with a realistic view on what has been achieved so far.

This research project aims to study how some organizations choose to prioritize certain changes when offered assistance by students who are studying quality technology.

A literature study is pursued. In this project, textual analysis of student works, such as reports, project diaries and subtasks, is used as an empirical source.

Organizations seem to already have identified areas for changes, but they neither have the methods and proper tools nor the know-how of implementing the changes. The results show that organizations take their opportunity to learn different tools in quality technology pointed out and used by students. There seems to be a huge need of knowledge about different tools and help with implementation of organizational changes.

The study is limited to a case study containing students’ project on a Swedish island.

The major implication of the study is that managers in organizations are positive in using university students in organizational change. Also, the students fill the gap for needs of knowledge about implementation. However, it is the managers together with the students who suggest change project and the students continue to perform the change.

The study makes a contribution to the knowledge of change management in exploring how educational course can bridge the gap between theoretical and practical aspects of organizational change by creating collaborative learning.

Total quality management has seen a tremendous rise of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Aims to question the effectiveness, utility and use of TQM among many people – practitioners, as well as academics.

Discusses the lack of common interpretations of TQM based on literature study. The answer to the question whether TQM is a marvel or malpractice depends on several factors, for instance, in what kinds of organizations TQM is applied, what interpretation of TQM is made, and what input the theorists and practitioners have, i.e. their earlier environment, culture and values. Often respondents and opponents use the same word but mean different things.

TQM should not be rejected as a whole if one or even, many applications fail. TQM should, however, be applied with considerable consideration of the specifics of the target organization, the purpose of the organization, and the purpose of applying TQM.

The paper emphasizes the lack of common interpretations of TQM.

This paper aims to develop a procedure for preparing production transfers based on risk management principles. The procedure should help companies reduce the amount of supply chain disruptions during transfers and achieve their outsourcing/offshoring objectives.

The procedure was developed during a three-year Design Science study. First, a literature review and case studies were conducted to frame the research problem. Second, a preliminary procedure was developed based on preventive risk mitigation actions from the production transfer literature. Third, the procedure was implemented during an electronics-offshoring case and refined during workshops with the sender and receiver’s transfer personnel. Fourth, during a seminar, transfer practitioners verified the procedure by applying it to outsourcing/offshoring cases with which they had experience.

Most of the preventive actions were evaluated as relevant for the transfers the procedure was applied to, regardless of industry and relocation type. Moreover, the electronics-offshoring case showed that the success of a production transfer not only depends on the physical, knowledge and supply chain transfers, as presented in earlier research, but also on the administrative transfer and on the organisation, project and quality management actions. This paper also attempts to enhance the production transfer literature by clarifying transfer risk management.

The procedure can be used during the production transfer phase as a preparation procedure. Moreover, it informs the decision-making process during the relocation-decision and supplier-selection phases.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first production-transfer-preparation procedure based on risk management principles.

This paper explores the operationalization of production network coordination – the production transfer (PT) – and the relationships between transfer risk sources, preventive actions, supply chain disruptions, corrective actions and losses to better understand how to mitigate the risk and achieve an effective transfer process.

A longitudinal field study of a PT process from Norway to Spain was studied in depth for 25 months.

The paper presents the implications of three areas of importance for PT success: (1) how the transfer influences the plant roles, (2) the cross-locational management of the transfer project at the sender and receiver and (3) whether adapting the transferred production to the receiver's environment is an enabler or an inhibitor of transfer success.

The findings about how to mitigate the transfer risk and the frameworks of risk sources, supply chain disruptions, losses and preventive and corrective actions, along with the examples from the in-depth study, can aid the practitioners in managing PTs and achieving the relocation goals.

This is one of the first studies of PT, which is from the perspective of both transfer parties, and addresses both preventive and corrective actions and all the transfer phases. Moreover, this study addresses the operational aspects of production network coordination, which received limited attention in earlier research.

This paper analyzes the effects on local suppliers of the adoption of a modular platform, taking into account different supply-chain relations.

The authors’ research follows an interpretive case study methodology based on a theoretical approach that seeks to validate the approach while making conclusions about the case study.

The traditional pyramidal structure of automotive supply chains has been altered by the consolidation of a much more complex structure, mostly in spatial and geographical terms. The authors find a strong hierarchy resulting from the reinforced market power of the carmaker under study and the respective fragile structural positioning of logistics companies and pre-assemblers. The increased versatility of the assembly plant, considered a consequence of its transition to modular platforms, finds a counterpart in the necessary re-configuration of certain supply relationships.

The main contribution of the paper is to connect the defining elements of supply-chain relations with those technical and organizational changes associated with the transition to modular platforms, as well as to analyze changes in the pyramidal structure of the supply chain, from both a spatial and relational perspective.

Respect for people with dementia and their involvement in service planning is explored, based on selected research publications and policy papers, mainly from the Department of Health and the Alzheimer's Society. This article supports the inclusion of people with dementia care in service planning as part of person‐centred care. Necessary adjustments to research methods and ethics committee procedures for gaining informed consent are discussed, as is the importance of ethical policy formation and implementation, in order to achieve person‐centred care. This will ensure a high degree of active involvement by people with dementia, enhancing self‐respect and responding to the needs of this often marginalised population.

This paper aims to present the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) method in an accessible language to a broad research audience from a variety of management-related fields.

The paper describes the DiD method, starting with an intuitive explanation, goes through the main assumptions and the regression specification and covers the use of several robustness methods. Recurrent examples from the literature are used to illustrate the different concepts.

By providing an overview of the method, the authors cover the main issues involved when conducting DiD studies, including the fundamentals as well as some recent developments.

The paper can hopefully be of value to a broad range of management scholars interested in applying impact evaluation methods.

Government communication is an essential part of the democratic process – it interconnects various stakeholder groups with the public, while also enabling the functioning of democratic systems based on values such as human rights, freedom of speech and public participation in governance. Besides promoting government successes or measures, government communication should foster mutual two-way communications between government organisations and different stakeholder groups. Specifically, communication about potential risks and hazards can suddenly appear and are subject to a different communication modus operandi. The accessibility and comprehensiveness of government information play an important role in how citizens make decisions and behave. In critical times, governments are required to meaningful crisis communication strategies to address the needs of different stakeholders. However, the Czech Republic as a post-communist country has not yet fully developed an integrated system of government communication with various stakeholder groups. The ministerial PR departments serve merely as technical support and media relations assistants for the ministers. This chapter presents research results regarding how the Czech Ministry of Education communicated during the pandemic crisis, how its communications were received by key stakeholders, and what pitfalls in communication it faced. The chapter presents empirical evidence of government communication challenges in times of crisis in a post-communist country and thus addresses the gap in government communication knowledge concerning the role of democracy and stakeholder participation in transforming societies. The chapter concludes with practical implications to prevent failures in future crises.