Bonnie Poksinska

Adjunct Professor

My research aims to develop knowledge on how organisations can manage their operations in an efficient and effective way. My primary research focus is on quality development in the public sector.

Quality management

My research is conducted in the various fields of operations management such as quality management, lean production and service management. I seek to develop knowledge on how organisations can improve and manage their operations more efficiently to better serve their customers . I also teach at basic and advanced level in Lean production, quality management, Six Sigma, process management, statistical process control and change management.

Quality development in the public sector

The public sector organisations such as healthcare, social care and elderly care are challenged to improve their services while keeping costs down. There is, therefore, great interest to transfer approaches and methods that appeared to be successful in the private sector into the public sector. However, the knowledge about how to translate the approaches and make it work in the public service context is limited. This is where I come in with my research.

As a PhD student I studied the implementation and operation of the international standards ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 in the manufacturing sector. These standards focus on a quality respectively environmental management and intend to support organisations in developing, implementing and improving a management system to meet stakeholder requirements. Since 2008 my focus shifted towards service operations and I have carried out several research projects on improving public sector quality and performance.

Currently I am looking how Lean principles can be applied in the service environment and what consequences it may have for the service productivity in terms of internal efficiency and external effectiveness.

Brief facts

Education and academic background

2015: promoted to associate professor
2006: received PhD degree in Quality Technology and Management at Linköping University, Sweden
2000: received master‘s degree from the division of Strategic Planning, Organization and Human Resources Management, Faculty of Economics, European University Viadrina, Germany
1995: graduated from the Foreign Language Teaching College in Wloclawek, Poland

Honours and awards

Best paper award: Poksinska, B. (2010), "The current state of Lean implementation in healthcare - literature review", in presented at the 13th International QMOD conference on Quality and Service Sciences, Cottbus.
Highly commended paper: Poksinska, B., Witell, L., Engström, J., Elg, M., and Snyder, H. (2011), "Listening to the voice of the patient: new insights in health care service development", presented at the 14th QMOD conference on Quality and Service Sciences, San Sebastian, Spain.
Honourable Mention and Highly Commended Paper: Elg, M., Engström, J., Witell, L., and Poksinska, B. (2011), "Learning from the Customer: Three Ways of using Diaries in Healthcare Service Development", presented at the 12th International Research Symposium on Service Excellence in Management, Ithaca, NY, USA.

Publications

2024

Bonnie Poksinska (2024) Capacity management in rehabilitation units:managing the variability and multiprofessional teams

Bonnie Poksinska, Malin Wiger (2024) From hospital-centered care to home-centered care of older people: propositions for research and development. Journal of Health Organization & Management, Vol. 38 (Article in journal)

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2023

Bonnie Poksinska (2023) Demand driven capacity planning and management in health care

2021

Promporn Wangwacharakul, Silvia Marquez Medina, Bonnie Poksinska (2021) Cross-cultural comparability of customer satisfaction measurement - the case of mobile phone service providers International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, Vol. 13, p. 236-252 (Article in journal)

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2019

Bonnie Poksinska, Malin Wiger, Magdalena Smeds (2019) The pros and cons of cancer care pathways from the health care professionals' perspective Operations adding value to society (Conference paper)

Teaching

Undergraduate education

My teaching experience comprises courses such as Lean production, quality management, Six Sigma, process management, statistical process control and change management. These three courses listed below are the “backbone” of my teaching experience, i.e. courses that I have given several times with high student satisfaction rates.

Quality Management and Engineering, basic course. The number of students varies between 50-150 students. The course language is Swedish or English. My experience includes course development, planning, giving lectures and seminars, and examination.
Lean production, advanced course. The course is given in English for around 150 students. My experience includes course development, planning, giving lectures and seminars, and examination.
Six Sigma, advanced course. The course is given in English for around 120 students. My experience includes coaching Six Sigma projects and examination of the course.

Post graduate education

I have been course responsible, examiner and lecturer in PhD courses on organisational change, Quality management and Lean production.

Previous research projects

Using vignettes for measuring quality in elderly care

The project aimed to develop, test and evaluate a survey methodology based on anchoring vignettes for measuring the quality in the elderly care. A central problem of the existing survey methodology is the interpersonal incomparability of survey responses due to differences in preferences and health conditions. The results have shown that anchoring vignettes reduce the impact that respondents' personal characteristics have on the survey results and thereby improve comparability, but the method has demonstrated several disadvantages that make it currently unsuitable for the use in elderly care.

The Lean Philosophy and Managerial Work in Healthcare: prerequisites, forms and processes

In this project we studied Lean leadership practices in organisations, which applied Lean production in a long term sustainable way. We developed knowledge on how to lead with focus on continuous improvement and employee growth.

Service Innovations in Health Care

The project aimed to develop knowledge about how patients can be involved in health care service innovations. The empirical work was carried out in three different health care units. Patients used diaries in order to collect ideas and problems which they identify during their health care episode.

European Framework for Lean Training in Healthcare Organisations

The project aimed to develop and provide an internationally accredited and recognised masters ‘Lean in HealthCare’ in a user based, on-line format for health care based institutions.

Organisation

Logistics and Quality Management (LOGQ)

The Division of Logistics and Quality Management strives to be the most demanded experts and to educate the country's most popular students in logistics and quality management.

Department of Management and Engineering (IEI)

The Department of Management and Engineering (IEI) strengthens and develops tomorrow’s industry, business world and society by ground-breaking research, education and innovation.

Studenthuset on Campus Valla in Linköping

About LiU

Linköping University, LiU, offers innovative education and boundary-crossing research. The students are among the most desirable in the labour market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.