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This article describes a futures‐oriented leadership process called visionary management as developed in the Finland Futures Research Centre and implemented successfully with several medium‐sized companies in the 1990s. It is regarded as an addition to advanced management processes aimed at making good business decisions. The aim of the process is to create new business ideas for the company in the form of a vision. The visionary process enriches the strategic management of the company by motivating key people to work jointly as a creative team for longer‐term success. It starts from finding a common understanding of the future business situation, and discovers the resources and options available to the company. It ends up with a vision, a synthesis of the common understanding of success and the will to accomplish it. Tools and approaches applied in this communication process are presented. Inside the company the vision becomes an empowering means for directing the future course of the company, and it is an effective way to communicate the aims of the company and attract external interest and support. The examples in the article represent real cases with the kind permission of the companies involved.

Visionary management is a key issue for all organizations. It is a never‐ending journey toward competitive advantage. By making visionary thinking a part of your daily routine, you will integrate it into all aspects of your work. This should become your organization’s way of life. This article introduces a visionary management model, based on an ambiguous mission, vision, core values, smart goals, strategies, critical success factors, and related performance indicators. It is based on the most recent book of the author.

States that the importance of leadership in fostering a quality culture in organizations is widely acknowledged. However, research on leadership can be conducted at multiple levels of analysis. This has resulted in the complexity, diversity and ambiguity of information that typifies the leadership task. Identifies the visionary transformer leader as the requisite leadership type for achieving success through quality‐led strategic change. In the context of illustrations drawn from organizational experience of the past decade, and using Ansoff’s growth vector as an underpinner, discusses how visionary transformer leaders use quality management strategy to secure the future of their organizations.

The aim of the study is to examine the development of four not-for-profit Chinese orchestras in Hong Kong, aiming to identify their key characteristics in management and operational practices, and highlight a probable proposal on how the concept of cultural entrepreneurship could be brought about for the growth of an orchestra.

This study looks into the cases of the development of four not-for-profit community Chinese orchestras in Hong Kong in accordance to the theoretical framework built on the reviewed literature. A self-assessment questionnaire survey was conducted among the key leaders in the orchestras, asking them to evaluate themselves about their features as a cultural entrepreneur, and the extent of the development of the orchestras towards entrepreneurship. The survey serves as preliminary reference data for follow-up phone interviews, with questions asked in accordance to the results of the survey.

The study shows that the four leaders of the Chinese orchestras have different qualities of a cultural entrepreneur. The four orchestras use different strategies to promote Chinese music, and adopt diversified approaches to survive. Four models of community orchestra having different features are identified, namely new generation model, affiliation-based model, mentor-mentee model, and developmental model. The findings suggest that community orchestras have limitations to the development of cultural entrepreneurship in Hong Kong, and they need the support of the right person and policy to grow and foster.

The results inform and give insights to cultural entrepreneur-to-bes and practitioners in the cultural industries as well as policy makers on some of the probable innovations employed by not-for-profit community performing groups.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

Total quality service (TQS) is a socio‐technical approach for revolutionary and effective management. However, the contemporary quality management literature is overridingly manufacturing oriented and there seems to be a dearth of comprehensive studies (from the management’s perspective) addressing the critical dimensions of TQS that will depict a holistic TQM philosophy in service organizations. The present study is an earnest endeavour to fill this void. Based on a thorough review of the prescriptive, practitioner, conceptual and empirical literature, the study has identified 12 dimensions as crucial for the inculcation of a TQM ambience in a service set‐up. The criticality of each of these dimensions from a service perspective is corroborated in detail. An instrument for measuring TQS with specific reference to the banking sector has been developed. Data have been collected from executives from banks in a developing economy. The instrument has been empirically tested for unidimensionality, reliability and construct validity using a confirmatory factor analysis approach. A model for TQS has also been proposed, illustrating the relationships between the various dimensions. The present research work offers a systematic framework for the conceptual and empirical understanding of TQS and its critical factors.

The ever‐changing global environment that is more and more quality driven demands a new vision of the role of corporate culture in the implementation of total quality in a manufacturing company. This study of three manufacturing companies in Slovenia shows that only an open and human oriented corporate culture that is based on the autonomy of the workplace and human resource management can be successful in implementing the total quality management (TQM) in all working processes in the company. Employees are empowered and intrinsically motivated for quality work when they have internal justification for taking actions that are supported by corporate culture. They definitely play an active role in the TQM environment.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the principles that businesses should (and should not!) follow in their foresight activities and to show how foresight serves the development of knowledge capital in business companies.

This paper singles out seven key principles: look to the future; anticipate future needs; make use of incomplete knowledge; expect the unexpected; think long‐term and short‐term; dream productively; and respect knowledge.

This paper highlights the principles that businesses should (and should not!) follow in their foresight activities and to show how foresight serves the development of knowledge capital in business companies.

The paper highlights a recent survey in the USA on how employees understand their job tasks and their organization's goals.

Literature refers to the key factors of total quality management (TQM) based on studies carried out in individual countries. However, few studies focus on studying the TQM factors in service companies based on multinational data. The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the key TQM factors and their impact on internal and external customer performance measures across different countries.

The research questions regarding the TQM factors and their effects were examined using a sample of service organisations from three countries (131 from Greece, 70 from Mexico and 151 from Spain). TQM factors and their impact on employee and customer satisfaction were analysed separately for each country. Exploratory factor analyses, coupled with multiple linear regression analyses, were conducted.

The key TQM factors identified are common among the three participating countries and can be summarised as follows: quality practices of top management, process management, employee quality management, customer focus, and employee knowledge and education. The adoption level of these five key factors of TQM varies across service organisations in different countries. The results also confirmed that some of the TQM elements are antecedents of customer- and employee-focused performance.

Multinational service organisations may use such an instrument to evaluate TQM implementation among worldwide operations and then benchmark their performance. In addition, an understanding of similarities and differences among countries would help managers around the world to address difficulties of TQM implementation related to the country culture.

Previous studies have compared key TQM factors across different countries in manufacturing, but overall, there has been a little attempt in the literature to analyse the adoption of TQM factors among service firms, as well the relationships between quality improvement and performance across different geographical regions.