Why won’t you leave the process alone? Exploring emotional, motivational and cognitive mechanisms triggering tampering
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

Quality management focuses on improvements aimed at enhancing the value created for various stakeholders. However, actions taken in response to a perceived problem sometimes lead to an inferior result rather than an improvement. Such actions have been denoted tampering. As an example, natural variation might unnecessarily be perceived as a problem, where the best way to handle that ‘problem’ would be to not act at all. However, for someone trained in quality management and striving for improvement, doing nothing might be more challenging than acting. The research question studied in this paper is: How do emotional, motivational and cognitive mechanisms influence tampering in problem-solving situations? Through interviews with 17 respondents, 33 tampering situations were identified and analysed. The findings describe emotional, motivational and cognitive mechanisms that lead individuals to take actions leading to tampering. Some examples of these mechanisms are fear of the consequences of not acting, feelings of guilt if not acting to resolve a problem, and taking actions based on experiences of past problem-solving. To counteract this, it is advised to set aside time for reflections before starting problem-solving and to establish an environment encouraging of reflections.

cognition

tampering

motivation

quality management

variation

emotion

Författare

Magdalena Smeds

Linköpings universitet

Jason Martin

Linköpings universitet

Mattias Elg

Linköpings universitet

Ida Gremyr

Chalmers, Teknikens ekonomi och organisation, Service Management and Logistics

Total Quality Management and Business Excellence

1478-3363 (ISSN) 1478-3371 (eISSN)

Vol. 34 5-6 791-805

Ämneskategorier

Scenkonst

Arbetslivsstudier

Studier av offentlig förvaltning

DOI

10.1080/14783363.2022.2112514

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-03-15