Leadership for quality: a systematic review and future directions

This systematic literature review aims to synthesize, organize, and structure the stock of knowledge relating to Leadership and Quality Management using the systematic literature review method. The authors have identified the main trends and possible gaps requiring further studies, providing a starting point for researchers and practitioners. The research is based on a systematic literature review of 162 papers that were published on Leadership and Quality Management topics in the past 40 years. The key findings show that Leadership is a critical success factor for launching and sustaining a Quality Management deployment in organizations. We have also identified several gaps in the literature that will require further research on the Leadership traits more conducive to a successful implementation of Quality Management – our research will aim to determine how these traits vary across industries, national cultures, organizational sizes and different levels in the management hierarchy, and lay out the foundation of a Leadership Maturity Model for Quality Management.