Western Problems — Eastern Solutions:Mixed Promise of Quality Circles

Abstract

Many 1980s western managers, stressed by global changes in resource costs, competitive pressures, and technological imperatives, strive to emulate Japanese management models and practices, such as Quality Circles (QCs). The implementation and cultural‐motivational barriers to an effective QC intervention, such as differing Japanese versus western administrative practices and group processes are examined. In Japan QCs are an integral part of structure, process and strategy; in the west they represent a new, untried adjunct to structure requiring new roles in addition to changed decision making authority patterns. Reasons for mixed western QC outcomes are examined, as is their potential for promoting innovation.