Public Defense in Quality Technology with Michael Johnson

Date: 17 June 2026, 12:30 PM

Venue: Room Q221, Campus Östersund and Zoom

Thesis title: “Responsiveness as a system-level capacity: cultivating value creation in schools as living systems”

Respondent: Michael Johnson

Main supervisor: Professor Kristen Snyder, Mid Sweden University

Chairperson: Professor Ingela Bäckström, Mid Sweden University

Opponent: Associate Professor Fredrik Backlund, Luleå University of Technology

Examination committee:

Professor Stefan Lagrosen, Linnaeus University

Associate Professor Jason Martin, Linköping University

Professor Katja Gillander-Gådin, Mid Sweden University

Participate via Zoom

Abstract

Schools in the United States and internationally are operating under increasing pressure as they respond to heightened accountability demands, growing complexity, and rapid social and technological change. Traditional, bureaucratic models of leadership and quality management have struggled to keep pace with these conditions, prompting calls for new ways of understanding how schools can sustain quality over time. This thesis examines responsiveness and attractive quality as complementary lenses for understanding how schools create and sustain value when viewed as living systems rather than static organizations.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop an understanding of responsiveness as a system-level capacity for value creation in schools, explored through the lens of attractive quality. Drawing on living systems theory, quality management, and strengths-based inquiry, the study conceptualizes responsiveness as emerging through relationships, structures, and shared meaning rather than as an individual leadership trait. The research draws on a series of interconnected studies, including a systematic literature review, qualitative case studies, phenomenological inquiry, grounded theory, and interpretive synthesis.

Empirical data were gathered within the U.S. educational context through interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis, while the theoretical perspectives and challenges addressed are internationally relevant. The findings show that responsiveness is sustained when leaders attend to both cultural and operational conditions, particularly through teaming structures, protected time for collaboration, trust-based relationships, and shared inquiry practices.

Attractive quality provides a practical lens for identifying experiences that exceed expectations and generate meaning, trust, and commitment among stakeholders. Methods such as attraction detection and appreciative inquiry support leaders in sensing what stakeholders value and responding in ways that reduce perceived sacrifice and increase perceived value over time.

The thesis concludes that responsiveness is not a leadership style or technique, but an emergent system-level capacity. It develops through the dynamic interplay of culture and operations and can be cultivated when leaders design conditions that support awareness, reflection, and coordinated action. In this way, the study contributes a systems-based understanding of leadership and quality, offering both conceptual and practical insights for sustaining value creation in complex educational environments.

Link to the Doctoral Thesis in Diva