Showing papers on "Quality circle published in 2002"

The Organizational Benefits of Teams

Abstract: This study presents an analysis of the benefits of two team structures - quality circles and self-managing work groups - for Australian work organizations utilizing the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey for 1995. The analysis indicates that firms with team structures have higher labor productivity, a flatter management structure and reduced employee turnover. The presence of team structures in Australian firms indicates a decrease in industrial harmony. The findings were inconclusive regarding absenteeism and profitability.

The quality circle approach to knowledge management

Abstract: Whilst the concept of quality circles is well established in the management lexicon, knowledge management is a much more recent addition. The aim of this paper is to show that these two concepts, together with a number of others, are closely linked and are all aspects of a much more fundamental concept – organisational development. The paper illustrates this by looking at a quality circle and a knowledge management application in two West Midland SMEs and highlighting the similarities and dissimilarities between the two. Finally the paper discusses the factors that, in the author’s experience, predispose an organisation to be successful in terms of such initiatives.

The quality circle: how to improve the outcome of paediatric diabetes care.

Abstract: Most multicentre studies demonstrate that the outcome of diabetes therapy falls below the targets set up in recent guidelines. Applying quality control methodology may provide one means better to achieve such targets. Before setting up a quality circle, objective, standardized documentation of relevant quality indicators is necessary. Based on internal (for example longitudinal changes over time) and external quality control (comparison with other institutions), both favourable and unfavourable results achieved by each institution are identified. Such data provide the basis for intensive discussion among the members of diabetes care teams on how to remedy such deficits. In Germany, the working group on paediatric diabetology set up a system for external quality assessment in 1995: For 6 continuous years, quality indicators are compared twice yearly, and regional quality circles for more open discussions have been established, in addition to yearly nationwide meetings among all participants.

Lessons learnt in work teams

Abstract: Manufacturing firms are exploring different ways to remain profitable in today's globally competitive market. Human resources have been acknowledged as an important factor in developing sustainable competitive advantage. With an increased emphasis on developing human resources, many firms are empowering their employees by implementing Quality Circles and Employee Involvement Teams. There is a need to identify factors that are critical to implementing employee empowerment programmes and how to overcome resistance. This case study reports the experience of a US subsidiary of a Japanese firm with the employee empowerment programme and the subsequent steps it took to address the above mentioned issues.

Use of quality circles among first year medical students and impact on student satisfaction.

Abstract: Quality circles in the classroom setting are composed of students who meet regularly to identify, analyse and solve problems related to a course, and implement solutions. We recently instituted quality circles (QCs) among preclinical medical students and evaluated their impact on quality of learning and student satisfaction. Included in the study were all 135 first-year medical students of Trakya University School of Medicine in the 2000-2001 academic year. Six students were selected randomly out of 26 volunteers as circle members. Circle participants met once a week for 14 45-minute sessions to discuss educational issues, propose solutions and prepare a report for submission to the dean. A questionnaire was administered to all first-year students and the replies provided the problem pool from which the QC chose the problem to be addressed. A total of 22 problems concerned education and 28 were identified in the fields of accommodation, social activities and other issues. To evaluate the change in the perceived quality of learning, circle members prepared a questionnaire designed to compare satisfaction at the beginning and end of the study period. This questionnaire was composed of 26 items and evaluated various aspects of education. There was a significant increase in student satisfaction after the one-year study period (p = 0.001). In addition to enhancing quality of learning, quality circles improved student satisfaction as well. More studies should be conducted to test the impact of QCs on education in different settings and different classes. Our results show that the use of quality circles in first-year medical students improves quality of learning and student satisfaction.

Total quality management (tqm) practices of the bangladeshi and thai companies: a comparative analysis

Abstract: he comparative analysis of TQM practices between Bangladesh and Thai companies clearly shows planning, implementation and operational differences. Bangladeshi companies portray TQM vision consciousness but in many cases they fall victim of treating TQM as a fad rather than an essential component. The management principles are narrowly viewed, communicated and understood in Bangladeshi companies even with well-documented procedures and instructions. All the Bangladeshi companies concerned are well equipped and successful to some extent in achieving customer satisfaction with regard to product and service quality excellence, but they lack close working relationships, interest groups and the promoting aspect of working environment. Bangladeshi firms make a visible effort in empowerment of quality control circles but apparently follow a comparatively rigid hierarchical structure, but nonetheless are able to assure quality. In terms of organization and distribution, all of the concerned companies are suitably equipped and positioned, but suppliers are not benchmarked with respect to specific criteria and special quality ratings in terms of product attributes and therefore information regarding supplier reliability is not available in any objective form. Bangladeshi firms have much to achieve in the areas of creativity and R&D, and therefore, investment in those areas is imperative.

Management of the Unwritten — How You Can Improve Employment Relationships Through Participation and Communication

Abstract: This chapter studies two work organization tools which can help employee motivation: participation and communication. They increase the trust and loyalty of employees towards their employer and they lead to stronger employee attachment to the company, while improving the working environment and job satisfaction of employees. Participation and communication are of particular importance in areas where employment relationships cannot be completely defined. They are, therefore, an important component of the “management of the unwritten.”

Preventive Quality Management

Abstract: Publisher Summary Preventive quality management (PQM) is based on the idea that possible mistakes have to be detected before they happen to prevent employees from learning the hard way. Knowledge management has now become the foundation of new business theory and corporate growth. Internal structures of organizations are fragmented and separated into functional silos, and this hinders knowledge management. Enterprises approach total quality management (TQM) to rectify organizational and methodological problems. Quality circles, process and product auditing, methods for preventive quality management, and extensive paper-based documentation systems are established to build up a company knowledge base. Analyzing knowledge base contents and taking appropriate actions can help in achieving the best practice for internal business processes. In a world in which decisions are usually made just in time, the ability to provide the right information at the right moment is a basic requirement. No paper-based or badly structured electronic information system is able to satisfy these essential requirements fully. This chapter aims to give knowledge engineers and managers an understandable and comprehensive outline for building an efficient knowledge-based tool in the field of preventive quality management.

Organizational Change: The Link between Structures and Interactions

Abstract: If we are to believe the contributors to a debate launched in the 40th anniversary issue of Administrative Science Quarterly (1996) and recently taken up in German and French publications, academic studies on organizations have long been committing a sin of omission by not linking theory and empiricism. As a result, we have not been able to understand organizational change. In this article, this shortcoming is attributed to the absence of references to action theories. Only through action theories can change be understood as an interaction. Drawing on concrete examples, this article shows that, in productive organizations, these interactions are born out of the meaning given to these changes by workers.There is a fierce debate between those who maintain that socio-economic structures play a determining role and always impose changes, and those who think that changes only occur if they are appropriated in one way or another by social actors. While for the former, people are governed by economic logic; for the latter, including this author, the effectiveness of changes depends on the actors who have to implement them.This article begins with a review of social action theories, which help us to understand the link between structures and actors. The author then analyzes how change is implemented today through the use of management tools, and shows that they are effective only if they are recognized as being fair and rational, which in turn gives rise to forms of co-operation. Change is always a particular response to particular situations.One such theorist, Georg Simmel, who has been recently rediscovered in Europe, defines sociology as the study of socializing forms of interactions and the construction of society as a reciprocal action, that is, as a relation. According to Simmel, change originates in interaction, which produces micro-adjustments, the only ones that can regulate behaviour in organizations.Parsons analyzes the role of values in forming a society in order to explain its equilibrium rather than its evolution and ability to change. To understand change, it must be acknowledged that the system is transformed through daily relationships - power relationships in the case of organizations - which, influenced by the global values of society and management tools, introduce a new logic for the actors. The meaning given by the actor to daily power relationships links societal values, management tools and interactions.Goffman shows that even in the most controlled institutions (prisons and asylums), actors have room to manoeuvre and this can endanger and change the system. The forming and changing of society occur through exchanges between individuals, with interaction altering the elements that come into contact with each other. Reciprocity is thus linked with social construction. Members of the organization are subject to official standards and values defined by the organization, but its members, even in those controlling institutions, have enough autonomy to circumvent, transform and adapt these standards and values. Their interactions can provoke structural changes, depending on the meaning given to them by the actors. It is necessary to search for this meaning in order to understand the action. It is impossible to talk about human action without referring to the meanings that individuals give to their acts.The debates resulting from the publication of Labor and Monopoly Capital by Braverman (1974) and the studies in the following period on workers’ behaviour in plants (Burawoy 1979; Bernoux 1982; Edwards 1986), have highlighted the importance of worker consent and work appropriation, and their role in the restructuring of work stations and organizational changes. Managers gradually abandoned Taylorism, not only because they found it less effective in a rapidly changing environment, but because worker resistance and work appropriation made the standards and values of this Taylorism seem counter-productive.Studies on the new management tools, such as ISO standards or ERP (Enterprise Planning Resources), show that they do not in the least eliminate the autonomy of workers nor their capacity for resistance and transformation of the organization. These tools are quite constraining but do not eliminate the actors’ abilities to interpret them and make compromises, which give each firm and each national model a particular form. Moreover, firms now expect greater involvement on the part of their employees and give them greater autonomy to bring about, among other things, the innovation that is so necessary for the firm’s success. Why do employees accept this and contribute to change?The main reason can be found in instrumental rationality or productive prestige. Production actors recognize the global effectiveness of techniques, the value of objects produced and that of the tools used to produce them. But they contest the organization and seek to change it. Studies conducted in the 1980s on quality circles, autonomous teams and worker participation had already demonstrated that workers were far from indifferent to the possibility of expressing their views on workshop operation for better management of work tools and organization of production tools. The organization of production, such as the operation of machines, has always generated attention and interest among production workers. Interest in work and the meaning given to it are key factors in the acceptance of the system. It is based on the following principles: equity - responsibilities and benefits are equitably shared; effectiveness - workers are proud to produce effectively and without supervision; and independence - the break with supervision is affirmed.Organizations may be characterized by the formal structures imposed on them by management. However, this definition is inadequate. These structures are also produced in the interactions and the latter are the central element of organizational changes. From an epistemological perspective, structuralism does not explain how organizations operate and consequently change, because human relations are overlooked. Only an interactionist conception of human action will allow us to understand the meaning of change in organizations as well as in societies.Practical observation shows that management cannot succeed in imposing changes, at least long-lasting changes, without appealing to worker acceptance, and this acceptance is created through interactions. This is especially true nowadays, when managers expect a great deal of workers, in particular in terms of innovations. Less motivated workers can produce but do not innovate.Organizational change is possible if it is perceived as a joint production through daily interactions. For this reason, research studies on change based on this interactionist perspective should be developed further. This type of study will help respond to the concerns of the contributors to that special issue of Administrative Science Quarterly as well as bring to light the terms and conditions of change.