Background

I presented my doctoral thesis “The Realization of Attractive Quality” at Mid Sweden University in 2010 and became associate professor (Docent) in 2015. As for my academic background, I took my Master of Science in Leading Product Development at Chalmers University of Technology in 2003 and then presented my licentiate thesis “Quality Practice and Customer Value” at Luleå University of Technology in 2005.

Area of interest

As a researcher, I am interested in the phenomena of quality development. In my research that relates to how to organize, facilitate and lead for increased learning and customer value creation in processes of continuous improvement, development, and innovation. The subject of study and interventions could be an organization, an entire region, as well as specific commercial products, services and/or experiences. An area of special interest is “Generativity” - that is the creation of new compelling images, metaphors, prototypes or physical representations that change the way people think so that new options for decisions and/or actions becomes available to them. The creation of compelling images that people want to act on, and thereby engage in realizing. This area is strongly related to Attractive Quality, Appreciative Inquiry, Dialogical Organizational Development, and Storytelling.
Other research areas that I am interested in and work with is Quality Culture, Lean, Strength-based Leadership, Systems thinking, Organizational Ambidexterity, and Customer Focused Product Development.

Current research

Since 2015, I am involved in the research project "Simply Lean", a project funded by the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) with the purpose to explore how quality can be improved in Swedish companies by developing an internal coaching model to support value-based leadership. A leadership that will integrate values, organizational culture, customer needs and sustainable development. This three-year project is a collaboration between three Swedish manufacturing companies and Mid Sweden University. I am also involved in a project that aims to support the Vinnova´s strategic innovation area “BioInnovation”. A project aiming at large-scale change in terms of transforming the Swedish Economy into a sustainable bio economy. Since 2017 I am part of the Vinnova project InnovationLab 2030 aiming at supporting Swedish agencies in contributing to the UN development goals as stated in Agenda 2030.

Teaching and tutoring

I teach in our master's program Quality and Leadership Development, where I also tutor students in their writing of final papers for their exam. Furthermore, I teach engineering students at the Sports tech program in innovative product development. I am also involved in giving courses in Appreciative Inquiry and societal entrepreneurship.

Publications

Articles in journals
Conference papers
Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries
Licentiate theses, monographs

Articles in journals

Palm, K. & Lilja, J. (2017). Key enabling factors for organizational ambidexterity in the public sector. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 9: 1, pp. 2-20.  

Palm, K. , Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2016). The challenge of integrating innovation and quality management practice. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, vol. 7: 1-2, pp. 34-47.  

Lilja, J. & Richardsson, D. (2015). Why is it Suddenly so Easy to Change?. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 7: 2/3, pp. 334-348.  

Palm, K. , Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2015). Agencies, it’s Time to Innovate! : Exploring the current understanding of the Swedish government’s call for innovation. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 7: 1, pp. 34-49.  

Stenmark, P. & Lilja, J. (2014). Designing for the satisfaction of high-level needs : introducing the Ideation Need Mapping (INM) methodology. The TQM Journal, vol. 26: 6, pp. 639-649.  

Lilja, J. & Richardsson, D. (2013). Getting Over the Bridge : “Three Billy Goats Gruff” as a Metaphor for the Start and Development of an AI-Community of Practice in Mid Sweden. AI practioner, vol. 15: 2, pp. 41-47.  

Lilja, J. & Richardsson, D. (2012). Putting Appreciative Design into Practice : A Case Study of a Course Evaluation and Design Process. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, vol. 4: 1, pp. 4-15.  

Ingelsson, P. , Eriksson, M. & Lilja, J. (2012). Can selecting the right values help TQM implementation? : A case study about organisational homogeneity at the Walt Disney Company. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, vol. 23: 1, pp. 1-11.  

Lilja, J. , Eriksson, M. & Ingelsson, P. (2010). Commercial experiences from a customer perspective elaborated, defined and distinguished. The TQM Journal, vol. 22: 3, pp. 285-292.  

Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2007). A two-dimensional perspective on attractive quality. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, vol. 18: 6, pp. 667-679.  

Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2006). Obstacles to the creation of attractive quality. The TQM Journal, vol. 18: 1, pp. 55-66.  

Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2005). Getting emotional about quality: questioning and elaborating the satisfaction concept. The Asian Journal of Quality, vol. 6: 3, pp. 38-55.

Åslund, A. & Lilja, J. (). Value Ripple Logic - Customer Value Creation from a System View. ,

Conference papers

Stenmark, P. , Lilja, J. & Hansen, D. (2016). Using appreciative inquiry practices as a starting block for product innovation and development. Paper presented at the EUROMA 2016, june 17-22, Trondheim, Norway

Lilja, J. , Hansen, D. , Fredrikson, J. & Richardsson, D. (2016). Is Innovation the Future of Quality Management? : Searching for signs of quality and innovation management merging in current practices and concepts. In Proceedings of the 19th QMOD Conference.

Jørgensen, R. , Hansen, D. & Lilja, J. (2016). How positive practices can accelerate transformation to a Lean improvement culture. In EUROMA 2016.

Lilja, J. , Bäckström, I. , Forsgren, O. , Ingelsson, P. , Noaksson, E. , Nätterlund, K. , Richardsson, D. & Åslund, A. (2016). Insights from Sustainable Cleveland 2019: An Initiative Driving Sustainable Regional Development by Large Scale Summits, Collective Visioning, and lots of Creativity, Culture, and Appreciation. In Valuing and Evaluating Creativity for Sustainable Regional Development. Östersund : . pp. 255--258.  

Bäckström, I. , Ingelsson, P. , Snyder, K. , Hedlund, C. & Lilja, J. (2016). Collection of baseline data – expanding the scope. In EurOMA 2016 - Interactions.

Ingelsson, P. , Bäckström, I. , Snyder, K. , Hedlund, C. & Lilja, J. (2016). Using the employee satisfaction survey as a tool for building organizational culture. In EurOMA Conference Proceedings : Interactions, 2016.

Hedlund, C. , Lilja, J. , Ingelsson, P. , Bäckström, I. & Snyder, K. (2016). Research On Toyota Kata? Proposing A Future Research Agenda For The Emerging Practice. In EurOMA Conference Proceedings : Interactions 2016.

Lilja, J. , Hansen, D. & Richardsson, D. (2015). Design Questions for Life : Connecting Engineering Design, Appreciative Inquiry, and Other Question-based Models. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED.. pp. 163--172.

Zillinger, M. & Lilja, J. (2015). The geography of team park mobility : interpretations of visitor tracks, experiences and methods. In Proceedings of Nordic Geographers Meeting.  

Stenmark, P. & Lilja, J. (2014). Exploring a new methodology for customer- involved ideation with a focus on high-level Needs. Paper presented at the Qmod 2014

Palm, K. & Lilja, J. (2014). From Reducing to Dynamically Managing Operational Deviations in the Service Sector : Towards Integrating Quality and Innovation Management in Practice by Ambidextrous Deviation Management (ADM). Paper presented at the QMOD 2014 - Conference on Quality and Service Sciences

Åslund, A. & Lilja, J. (2013). Towards Capturing and Visualizing Value Creation : Exploring and Elaborating Attribute-Value Mapping. Paper presented at the 16th QMOD-ICQSS conference, Portoroz, Slovenia, 2013 (September 4-6)

Palm, K. & Lilja, J. (2012). Towards Improving InnovAbility : Elaborating on the Ability to Measure Innovation Quality in Service Organizations. In Electronic Proceedings of the 15th QMOD Conference.

Lilja, J. & Richardsson, D. (2011). Putting Appreciative Design into Practice : A Case Study of a Course Evaluation and Design Process. Paper presented at the 14th QMOD Conference

Stenmark, P. & Lilja, J. (2011). Exploring environmental labeling as a means of product differentiation in the outdoor industry.

Lilja, J. & Eriksson, M. (2010). From problem to Attraction Detection Study (ADS) : towards a new methodology for quality practice. In Electronic Proceedings. Cottbus, Germany :

Lilja, J. , Eriksson, M. & Ingelsson, P. (2007). Commercial experiences from a customer perspective : Elaborated, defined and distinguished. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Quality Management for Organisational and Regional Development, Lund 18-20/6 2007. Lund : (Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings)

Eriksson, M. , Ingelsson, P. & Lilja, J. (2007). Achieving shared values : Learning from Disney.

Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2005). Getting emotional about quality: questioning and elaborating the satisfaction concept. In Conference on Quality Management for Organisational and Regional Development, Palermo, 29 June – 1 July 2005: 8th QMOD Conference.

Lilja, J. & Wiklund, H. (2005). Quality Practice and External Customer Value : Critical reflections on the ideal linkage. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Quality Management for Organisational and Regional Development : QMOD 2005, Palermo, Italien, 29.06.2005 - 01.07.2005... pp. 281--292.

Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries

Lilja, J. (2010). The Realization of Attractive Quality : Conceptual and practical perspectives within the TQM system. Dis. (Comprehensive summary) Östersund : Mid Sweden University, 2010 (Mid Sweden University doctoral thesis : 96)  

Licentiate theses, monographs

Lilja, J. (2005). Quality practice and customer value: strengthening the ideal linkage. Lic. Luleå : Luleå tekniska universitet, 2005 (Licentiate thesis / Luleå University of Technology : 2005:50)