The contribution of quality management to an organisation’s digital transformation: a qualitative study

Digitalisation and quality management: problems and prospects

“…digitisation). Hence, the potential for QM to cut across an organisation, as well as its value creation processes (Ponsignon, Kleinhans, and Bressolles 2019), is not fully exploited by bridging QM activities in the provider sphere with relevant activities occurring in the interaction and customer value spheres (more in line with digitalisation). Thus, QM remains internally focussed, even though it has long been argued that there is a strong customer focus at its core (Dean and Bowen 1994).…”

“…From a practical perspective, the study contributes to an understanding of the actual practices of QM (Sousa and Voss 2002) and the way organisational roles need to change in order to exploit the potential benefits of digitalisation (Parviainen et al 2017;Henriette, Feki, and Boughzala 2016). Moreover, the study adds to the work of Ponsignon, Kleinhans, and Bressolles (2019) and the proposed competences needed for QM to contribute to organisations' digitalisation journeys by providing empirical examples of these anticipated changes and challenges in QM practitioners' work practices. A summary of these potential changes and challenges is provided in Figure 3.…”

“…Third, support for QM's achievements in improving internal processes is now increasingly available through digital solutions (Ali c 2018). Fourth, QM activities arein the same way as digitalisationnot limited to one specific function in an organisation but spread across the whole organisation and its value creation processes (Ponsignon, Kleinhans, and Bressolles 2019). In line with this, it is important to understand the various roles QM may play in digitalisation initiatives.…”

“…Even though there are plenty of reports arguing for digital transformation, few empirical studies have been conducted in order to understand how digitalisation affects and challenges contemporary QM practice. A notable example is Ponsignon, Kleinhans, and Bressolles's (2019) work which examines how QM can contribute to a digital transformation, focussing on the professionals' views on the competences available, and needed, to make such a contribution. However, they point out that their research does not depart from a study of actual practices and call for more research investigating actual digitalisation journeys.…”

The Many Meanings of Quality: Towards a Definition in Support of Sustainable Operations

“…In industry, most organisations have wellestablished quality departments (Sousa & Voss, 2002), but the method of organising quality work for best results is still being questioned. These questions are about the need for a separate quality profession (Waddell & Mallen, 2001), the quality practices that best influence business results (Gremyr et al, 2019), and competencies that the quality practitioners need to have (Martin et al, 2019;Ponsignon et al, 2019). All of these questions relate to the definition of quality and its meaning.…”