Since more than ten years a discussion was held within the Dutch Academy for Quality and in the publications of the NNK (Dutch Network of Quality Management) on the different ways one can look at quality. Huub Vinkenburg started the discussion in 2009 by identifying three schools (the management school, the normative school and the reflective school). Teun W. Hardjono and I got involved in the discussion and several reactions followed, first in Dutch like Van Kemenade, E.A. (2011), جودة ,briefwisseling over scholen in kwaliteit, Sigma, 5, pp.30-31 and Van Kemenade, E.A. en Hardjono, T.W. (2011), Van vier paradigma’s naar vier scholen en een Wintercamp, Synaps, 32, pp. 28-33. Hardjono and Van Kemenade were and still are convinced there is a fourth way of thinking, a fourth paradigm on quality. First it was called the Pragmatic paradigm (Hardjono), later the Contextual paradigm (Van Kemenade). Finally Rik Spann suggested the term “Emergence Paradigm”.
Since then, two English articles were published on the topic: Van Kemenade, E.A. & Hardjono T.W. (2018) “Twenty-first century Total Quality Management: the Emergence Paradigm”, The TQM Journal, vol 31, issue 2, pp. 150-166 (quoted 13 times since publication) and Van Kemenade, E.A. (2019), Emergence in TQM: a concept analysis, TQM Journal, 32(1): 143-161. The Dutch version of the concept analysis can be found at the NNK website.
In the meanwhile Teun Hardjono and I kept discussing and elaborating on the topic. Finally we decided to write a book. We found DeGoudseSchool willing to support us and pay for the English translation. Just recently we got confirmation from the publisher Springer, that the book wil be released this year under the title: “The Emergence Paradigm in Quality Management – A Way towards Radical Innovation”. We are proud and curious about the reception of the book. We will keep you posted!