Leading Quality Management Transformation in Complexity Through Adaptive Space and Metaphors

Most organizations experience the tension between producing and innovating. With increasing external pressures, e.g. driven by fast-paced technological innovation and connectivity in the 4th industrial revolution, the organizational tension and complexity is increasing rapidly. This poses challenges concerning how quality management (QM) will be carried out in the future. In order to handle higher complexity and organizational adaptability, QM need to master enabling leadership that creates adaptive spaces, bridging the entrepreneurial and operational systems in organizations. Guiding images such as metaphors have been suggested to support transformative change, but have only received limited research. This paper investigates the role of guiding images as facilitating tool for leading organizational adaptability and contribute to QM leadership practices in the 4th industrial revolution.The paper studied three case organizations where management teams needed to facilitate organizational adaptability in complexity and used a generative image to support the leadership process. The researchers gained access to key meetings to study the processes through observations that were later analyzed with the use of storyboards.The study shows how the enabling leadership processes can be facilitated by guiding images. The guiding images can be generated while managers experience tension and can help support the leadership processes of conflicting and connecting. Three types of guiding images were identified.The paper contributes with practical knowledge about how to support the enabling leadership process with guiding images and contributes to QM by introducing complex adaptive leadership theory.