Quality Circles, Feedback and Reinforcement

Abstract

In Japan, quality circles are a highly successful program of employee problem solving that began as part of Deming's effort to improve quality control. Beginning in the early seventies, the program was imported to the United States with great expectations. Recently, doubts have arisen about the utility of this program in American business where there has been little controlled research to test the efficacy of quality circles. In the present study, self-monitoring instructions were applied for one month to decrease losses of wire clips from a manufacturing process. At a similar plant an ongoing quality circle had been working on the same problem for a year. Self-monitoring instructions produced equal decreases in clip losses during the first measurement period but clip losses returned to baseline when these instructions were removed. Clip losses in the quality circle plant showed a significant decrease over the year of intervention. Absenteeism and lost-time also showed significant decreases for the quality circle members but not for those doing self-monitoring. The conflict between demonstrated circle effects and excpectations was then analyzed with an emphasis on circles as a means to improve quality control rather than provide participative management. Circle failures are seen as reflecting a human relations rather than a quality control approach to quality circles. Increased data collection, feedback and reinforcement are recommended to bring quality circles in America into line with Deming's original conception and the Japanese model.