In my forthcoming thesis, the main theme revolves around the question of what is actually required to carry out quality development work that enables and promotes both continuousimprovement and innovation and development capacity in organizations.

Surprisingly little research on skills requirements

Although quality development is a relatively established and well-researched field, one can find surprisingly little research that focuses on understanding what competences and practices are required. A main point of the thesis is that we do not really know which quality development practices will be needed in the future. Nor do we really know how we, tomorrow, will work with the established quality development practices that exist today. Therefore, in addition to good ability to use existing methods and processes (or method and process competence), adaptability (or contextual competence) and "soft skills" (or human competence) become important basic competences in quality development work.

New technology, digitization and new ways of working in a world that is changing ever more rapidly result in increasingly aware and well-informed customers where lead times for product and service development are becoming shorter and shorter. Today's and especially tomorrow's organizations should be better prepared to handle emerging customer needs. This, in turn, requires emergent ways of working, which places particular demands on the skills of those working in quality development. The ability to think creatively and innovate (or conceptual competence) therefore becomes another key basic competence.

Expansive and adaptive quality development work

Two main orientations of quality development practices are presented in the thesis: expansive and adaptive quality development work. Expansive quality development work is largely about innovation and the development of new solutions and processes with a critical questioning approach and thinking and doing in new ways. Adaptive quality development work, on the other hand, is characterized by efficiency, productivity and improvement of already existing solutions and processes. Switching between adaptive and expansive approaches becomes a key skill in emergent approaches. Thus, the important thing is not to define and stick to a set of practices as these are likely to change or be replaced sooner or later. What is important is to develop and stimulate the individual and organizational capacity and ability to switch roles between expansive and adaptive quality development work.

This so-called role dependence iscentral and can be described as a function of both individual and organizational conditions. Organizations should therefore focus on the interaction between employees and the organization to maximize utilized competence. One of the central conclusions of the thesis is therefore that the propensity for freedom of action in developing new ways of working and being able to switch between expansive and adaptive roles can be influenced both individually and organizationally. Understanding how competencies work, both from individual and organizational aspects, is the key to how to organize quality development work in a successful way.

Do you agree?

Kind regards
Jason Martin

PhD student, Linköping University

Here are articles (with DOI numbers) that link to the content:

• Martin, J., Elg, M., and Gremyr, I. (2019), 'Fit for purpose? Exploring competence in quality
  Management', International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 317-333. DOI:10.1108/IJQSS-06-2018-0054
• Martin, J., Elg, M., Gremyr, I., and Wallo, A. (2019), 'Towards a quality management competence framework: exploring needed competencies in quality management', Total Quality Management and Business Excellence. DOI: 10.1080/14783363.2019.1576516
• Gremyr, I., Elg, M., Hellström, A., Martin, J., and Witell, L. (2019), 'The roles of quality departments and their influence on business results', Total Quality Management and Business Excellence. DOI: 10.1080/14783363.2019.1643713
  
• The thesis will be presented and defended on Tuesday 12/11 at Linköping University.