ABSTRACT
Problem-solving tools to improve productivity and job performance in business, industry, and government work settings. Quality Circle (QC) experiments enjoy a rich history, dating back more than 30 years. Conceived for Japanese industry, QCs are now common in business, government, and nonprofit organizations throughout the industrialized world. As word of QC accomplishments spread beyond Japan, work institutions elsewhere in Asia and in the West asked how they could adopt QC. QCs have gradually become incorporated into system- or organization-wide quality improvement efforts, generally known in the US as total quality management (TQM). Governmental institutions have been particularly receptive to quality and productivity improvement strategies inasmuch as they promise remedies for bureaucratic inefficiency and waste, and customer dissatisfaction, as well as help for shrinking budgets. QC vary in form across work institutions as well as cultures, some fundamental shared characteristics can describe a typical QC's organization and roles.
