Exploring Quality Challenges and the Validity of Excellence Models

\ua9 2016, \ua9 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore important quality-related challenges facing organizations, and investigate how current excellence models incorporate these challenges. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a Delphi study of Swedish organizations. Forty-nine challenges were generated and ranked according to importance and the ten top-ranked challenges were compared to the principles of four excellence models. Findings: The excellence models still seem to be relevant since their content matches many of the identified challenges. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the Swedish Institute for Quality models were found to have the most comprehensive coverage, while the International Organization for Standardization model had limited coverage. Research limitations/implications: Three areas for further research were identified: first, how quality management (QM) can evolve in different contexts that have varying needs in terms of adaptive and explorative capabilities; second, the interfaces of QM and sustainability, and ways to understand how customers and stakeholders can be active contributors to improvements; and third, the roles of the owners and board of directors regarding QM, and how to organize and distribute responsibilities of the QM work. Practical implications: There are three important challenges that future revisions of excellence models could address: first, making QM a strategic issue for company owners; second, involving customers in the improvement activities; and third, developing processes that are robust yet still easily adaptable. Originality/value: The Delphi study identified upcoming challenges in the QM area based on input from 188 quality professionals

Tillgänglighet, närhet och synlighet – gemensamma utmaningar för LUB-nätverket för att möta forskares behov av stöd vid Lunds universitet

This report presents a project at Lund University Libraries (LUB) during the fall of 2012, with the object to identify areas where the present research support services ought to be developed and strengthened. The project is three folded and contains a) a literature review focusing on definitions and examples of research support services as well as researchers’ needs and experiences of support services, b) a survey to get an overview of the support services offered today at LUB, the decentralized library network at Lund University, and c) focus group interviews with researchers, one group from each partaking faculty, to investigate key obstacles in their research processes. In all three parts a model of the research process schematically divided into four phases was applied; to start a project, to collect material, to process/analyze/write and to communicate the results. The first two stages of the project, the literature overview and the survey, form a background and both show that many support services are concentrated around the phases to collect material and to communicate results. The findings from the focus group interviews point to common needs and issues as well as special needs and issues related to different ways of doing and communicating research. Common for most researchers is limited time, a need for funding and an everyday fragmentation. They talk about the importance of networks, their efforts to navigate in an abundance of material and ways to find it and a need for overviews and help to understand new ways and demands to communicate. Most concern is expressed in the phases to start a project, to collect material and to communicate results. A major conclusion is that the research support services need to be available, visible and in close proximity to the researchers. Further, the development of support services needs to take into consideration both common traits as well as local variations in research practices. Therefore, discussions concerning LUB as a whole, need to be related to discussions at the single faculty libraries. Apart from knowledge about how to address the research support services at LUB, the project generates a model for how librarians can understand the research community that they are working with and with whom to create networks and partnerships for the future

Asymptomatic Achilles tendon pathology is associated with a central fat distribution in men and a peripheral fat distribution in women: a cross sectional study of 298 individuals

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adiposity is a modifiable factor that has been implicated in tendinopathy. As tendon pain reduces physical activity levels and can lead to weight gain, associations between tendon pathology and adiposity must be studied in individuals without tendon pain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether fat distribution was associated with asymptomatic Achilles tendon pathology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Achilles tendons of 298 individuals were categorised as normal or pathological using diagnostic ultrasound. Fat distribution was determined using anthropometry (waist circumference, waist hip ratio [WHR]) and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Asymptomatic Achilles tendon pathology was more evident in men (13%) than women (5%) (p = 0.007). Men with tendon pathology were older (50.9 ± 10.4, 36.3 ± 11.3, p < 0.001), had greater WHR (0.926 ± 0.091, 0.875 ± 0.065, p = 0.039), higher android/gynoid fat mass ratio (0.616 ± 0.186, 0.519 ± 0.142, p = 0.014) and higher upper-body/lower body fat mass ratio (2.346 ± 0.630, 2.022 ± 0.467, p = 0.013). Men older than 40 years with a waist circumference >83 cm had the greatest prevalence of tendon pathology (33%). Women with tendon pathology were older (47.4 ± 10.0, 36.0 ± 10.3, p = 0.008), had less total fat (17196 ± 3173 g, 21626 ± 7882 g, p = 0.009), trunk fat (7367 ± 1662 g, 10087 ± 4152 g, p = 0.003) and android fat (1117 ± 324 g, 1616 ± 811 g, p = 0.005). They had lower central/peripheral fat mass ratios (0.711 ± 0.321 g, 0.922 ± 0.194 g, p = 0.004) than women with normal tendons. Women with tendon pathology were more often menopausal (63%, 13%, p = 0.002).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Men with Achilles tendon pathology were older and had a central fat distribution. Women with tendon pathology were older and had a peripheral fat distribution. An interaction between age and waist circumference was observed among men.</p

Shared heritability and functional enrichment across six solid cancers

Quantifying the genetic correlation between cancers can provide important insights into the mechanisms driving cancer etiology. Using genome-wide association study summary statistics across six cancer types based on a total of 296,215 cases and 301,319 controls of European ancestry, here we estimate the pair-wise genetic correlations between breast, colorectal, head/neck, lung, ovary and prostate cancer, and between cancers and 38 other diseases. We observed statistically significant genetic correlations between lung and head/neck cancer (r(g) = 0.57, p = 4.6 x 10(-8)), breast and ovarian cancer (r(g) = 0.24, p = 7 x 10(-5)), breast and lung cancer (r(g) = 0.18, p = 1.5 x 10(-6)) and breast and colorectal cancer (r(g) = 0.15, p = 1.1 x 10(-4)). We also found that multiple cancers are genetically correlated with non-cancer traits including smoking, psychiatric diseases and metabolic characteristics. Functional enrichment analysis revealed a significant excess contribution of conserved and regulatory regions to cancer heritability. Our comprehensive analysis of cross-cancer heritability suggests that solid tumors arising across tissues share in part a common germline genetic basis

Studentdrivet förbättringsarbete : tillämpning av fokusgrupper och andra utvärderingsinstrumentför ökad studenttillfredsställelse

Godkänd; 1998; 20080117 (ysko

Strengthening the student's role in the work with quality improvement and innovation in higher education

CD-ROMGodkänd; 2002; Bibliografisk uppgift: CD-ROM; 20070211 (ysko

Towards Attractive Experiences

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to develop the concept of commercial experiences, helping providers to satisfy their customers’ needs and expectations. ApproachTheories describing the concept of Commercial Experiences are analyzed through a quality perspective. The analysis was made through the Kano Model (Kano et. al. 1984), to build more knowledge about the customer’s need and expectations. FindingsThe authors identify that focus on providing attributes of attractive quality can be a fundamental condition when providing commercial experiences. The paper raises the question for further discussion and future research to build more knowledge about the proposal that a commercial experience needs to contain attributes of attractive quality to actually fulfill the elements of a satisfying experience to the customer. ValueThis paper increases the understanding of providing commercial experiences and points out the need to work with attributes of attractive quality.Sportstech