This study supports the proposition that sustainability’s integration into Quality Management Systems (QMS) could be a viable pathway to the development of the Emergency paradigm, in which leadership plays a crucial role. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was performed in order to deepen leadership’s relationship with Quality Management (QM) from an evolutionary perspective. An exploratory survey was then conducted to assess quality managers’ perceptions of sustainability’s integration into QMS and their leadership styles, using the 5X Short Leader Form MLQ instrument. The results indicate that leadership is a critical element of QMS performance, enhancing transformational leadership, which appears to be the dominant self-perceived style of the quality managers who participated. Nevertheless, these practitioners recognise the difficulties in committing all employees to the sustainability journey. The theoretical and managerial implications give rise to this work. The SLR results could be a useful database to support future QM and Leadership research. The organisations could follow the suggested pathway to evolve their QMS to support solutions to some of the current challenges. At the same time, quality managers could reflect on their future professional challenges. This work has taken a step forward, indicating sustainable quality management systems as a viable pathway to explore QM knowledge regarding the Emergency paradigm, and thus enhancing leadership’s role.

We have sought to understand the current state of the art on smart tourism and on smart cities. Furthermore, we have sought to understand community awareness and the will to embrace innovation, as they are decisive factors to acquire base knowledge and overcome barriers in (soon to be) overpopulated cities and for those who are looking for a limited time culture experience -known as tourists. We live in an age where technology is increasingly present in our lives and provides us solutions to societal problems. Problems such as traffic, infrastructure and natural resources management, or even increasing citizens' participation in governance, bringing them closer to decision-making. The objective is to understand the current level of people's knowledge about the impact that technologies have on the society in which we live and their perception of the usefulness in solving these same problems. Therefore, an anonymous questionnaire was carried out (176 valid answers were received), as well as a focus group with two experts on the Smart Cities subject. What future is brought by those who live and breathe technology? Are people willing to accept a paradigm shift?

Leadership is a key element of quality management, and, as such, it has been identified as an influential factor in the maturity of quality management systems (QMSs). Some of the previous studies on the relationship between leadership styles and QMS performance have argued that no universal best leadership style exists, stressing that leadership practices should be appropriate to the context. Thus, this research aims to further explore this relationship by considering the QMS context, namely the practitioners' leadership profile and the QMS maturity. Accordingly, the primary objectives of this study are 1) to understand if a leadership style is predominant depending on the QMS maturity and 2) to understand the relationship between the leadership practices of different styles and the dimensions of the QMS maturity. An exploratory quantitative study was developed in companies located in Portugal through a survey based on the maturity model developed by Nascimento et al. (2016) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire®-5X Short Leader Form MLQ of Avolio and Bass (1995). The diagnosis disclosed that only 32% of the sample had a QMS with higher maturity levels (4 and 5, a scale of 1 to 5). The results highlighted that no single leadership style dominates a specific maturity level. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was demonstrated between several practices of transformational and transactional leadership styles and the dimensions of QMS maturity. As a practical contribution, a guideline was provided with some examples of leadership practices and their impacts on the specific dimensions of QMS maturity. Some steps were also proposed to enable organisations to develop a tailored programme to foster leadership practices suitable to the internal context and promote QMS maturity.