Quality Circles

Quality Circles
Corporate Social Responsibility
0
1

Internalizing CSR: Initiatives of HRM

HRs Role in Promoting Corporate Social
Responsibility
2
Three Key Areas of Corporate Social
Responsibility
Quality of Work Life
1 Quality of Work Life
0
Hour of Work and Quality of Work
1
Improvement of the quality of work life
Quality Circles
Quality Circles

Problem Solving Tools Used by Quality

Circles,
0
1
2

Brainstorming.
Pareto analysis.
Cause and effect diagram (or fish bone
diagram or Ishikawa diagram).

A quality circle is a volunteer group composed of

workers , usually under the leadership of their
supervisor , who are trained to identify, analyze
and solve work-related problems and present their
solutions to management in order to improve the
performance of the organization, and motivate
and enrich the work of employees. When
matured, true quality circles become selfmanaging
naging, having gained the confidence of management.
Quality circle
Participative management technique within the framework of a company
wide quality system in which small teams of (usually 6 to 12) employees
voluntarily form to define and solve a quality or performance related
problem. In Japan (where this practice originated) quality circles are an
integral part of enterprise management and are called quality control
circles.

www.businessdictionary.com

"A Quality Circle is volunteer group composed of members who meet to

talk about workplace and service improvements and make presentations to

their management with their ideas." (Prasad, L.M, 1998).
Quality circles enable the enrichment of the lives of the workers or
students and creates harmony and high performance. Typical topics are
improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and
improvement in the workplace and manufacturing processes.
These are related especially to the quality of output or services in order to
improve the performance of the organization / department and motivate
and enrich the work of employees. This group carries on continuously as a
part of organization-wide control activities, self and mutual developments
and control and improvement within the workplace utilizing quality control
techniques with all the members participating. Generally six to twelve
volunteers from the same work area make up a circle. The members
receive training in problem solving, statistical quality control and group
processes. Quality Circle generally recommends solutions for quality and
services which may be implemented by the management. Thus Quality
Circle is not merely a suggestion system or a quality control group but
extends beyond that because its activities are more comprehensive.
Furthermore, it is not a taskforce because it can be made a permanent
feature of the organization or a department.
Quality Circles (QC) or Quality Control Circles (QCC) : History
Pioneered by Japanese.

Japanese nomenclature: Quality Control Circles (QCC), generally now

known as Quality Circles (QC) or some call it as Small Group Activity
(SGA).
1962: First QC Circle was registered with QC Circle Head Quarters in
Japan.
1974: Lockheed Company, USA started Quality Circle movement.
1977: International Association of Quality Circles (IACC) was formed in
USA.
1980: BHEL, Hyderabad first in India to start Quality Circles.
1982: Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI) was founded.
Facts [+]
"Chorei" is a common morning meeting ritual in Japanese organizations.
Each work day begins with a meeting where employees stand in a circle
and share their day's work agenda or project status. Chorei is a cultural
export in the expanding global economy. Practitioners of chorei believe this

type of meeting technique can help improve communication resulting in

better productivity.
There are various forms and styles of participative management. One of
them which is widely applied and practised is Quality circles. The quality
circle concept first originated in USA which was very successfully applied
in Japan afterwards. This technique boosted the Japanese firms to
endeavour for high quality products at low costs.
Objectives of Quality Circle
The perception of Quality Circles today is 'Appropriateness for use1 and
the tactic implemented is to avert imperfections in services rather than
verification and elimination. Hence the attitudes of employees influence the
quality. It encourages employee participation as well as promotes
teamwork. Thus it motivates people to contribute towards organizational
effectiveness through group processes. The following could be grouped as
broad intentions of a Quality Circle:
2 To contribute towards the improvement and development of the
organization or a department.
3 To overcome the barriers that may exist within the prevailing
organizational structure so as to foster an open exchange of ideas.
4 To develop a positive attitude and feel a sense of involvement in the
decision making processes of the services offered.
5 To respect humanity and to build a happy work place worthwhile to work.
6 To display human capabilities totally and in a long run to draw out the
infinite possibilities.
7 To improve the quality of products and services.
8 To improve competence, which is one of the goals of all organizations.
9 To reduce cost and redundant efforts in the long run.
10
With improved efficiency, the lead time on convene of information
and its subassemblies is reduced, resulting in an improvement in
meeting customers due dates.
11
Customer satisfaction is the fundamental goal of any library. It will
ultimately be achieved by Quality Circle and will also help to be
competitive for a long time.
BENEFITS OF QUALITY CIRCLES
There are no monetary rewards in the QCs. However, there are many
other gains, which largely benefit the individual and consecutively, benefit

the business. These are:

Self-development: QCs assist self-development of members by
improving self-confidence, attitudinal change, and a sense of
accomplishment.
Social development: QC is a consultative and participative programme
where every member cooperates with others. This interaction assists
in developing harmony.
Opportunity to attain knowledge:QC members have a chance for
attaining new knowledge by sharing opinions, thoughts, and
experience.
Potential Leader: Every member gets a chance to build up his
leadership potential, in view of the fact that any member can
become a leader.
Enhanced communication skills:The mutual problem solving and
presentation before the management assists the members to
develop their communication skills.
Job-satisfaction: QCs promote creativity by tapping the undeveloped
intellectual skills of the individual. Individuals in addition execute
activities diverse from regular work, which enhances their selfconfidence and gives them huge job satisfaction.
Healthy work environment: QCs creates a tension-free atmosphere,
which each individual likes, understands, and co-operates with
others.
Organizational benefits: The individual benefits create a synergistic
effect, leading to cost effectiveness, reduction in waste, better
quality, and higher productivity.
All these benefits are lasting in nature, which bring about progress over a
period of time.

Brainstorming

Quality Circles
Corporate Social Responsibility
0
1

Internalizing CSR: Initiatives of HRM

HRs Role in Promoting Corporate Social
Responsibility
2
Three Key Areas of Corporate Social
Responsibility
Quality of Work Life
12
Quality of Work Life
0
Hour of Work and Quality of Work
1
Improvement of the quality of work life
Quality Circles
Quality Circles

Problem Solving Tools Used by Quality

Circles,
0
1
2

Brainstorming.
Pareto analysis.
Cause and effect diagram (or fish bone
diagram or Ishikawa diagram).

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to

find a solution for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas
spontaneously contributed by its members. The term was popularized by
Alex Faickney Osborn in 1953 through the book Applied Imagination. In
the book, Osborn not only proposed the brainstorming method but also
established effective rules for hosting brainstorming sessions.
Brainstorming can be defined as the methodology used to
encourage every individual in the Circle to express freely their
opinions or give ideas in an open discussion..
Brainstorming can be used to list down all the problem faced by
an organization, their causes and the potential effects if a certain
suggestion is implemented..
Brainstorming works by focusing on a problem, and then deliberately
coming up with as many solutions as possible and by pushing the ideas as
far as possible. One of the reasons it is so effective is that the
brainstormers not only come up with new ideas in a session, but also
spark off from associations with other people's ideas by developing and
refining them.

Brainstorming can be an effective way to generate lots of ideas on a

specific issue and then determine which idea or ideas is the best
solution. Brainstorming is most effective with groups of 8-12 people and
should be performed in a relaxed environment. If participants feel free to
relax and joke around, they'll stretch their minds further and therefore
produce more creative ideas.
A brainstorming session requires a facilitator, a brainstorming space and
something on which to write ideas, such as a white-board a flip chart or
software tool. The facilitator's responsibilities include guiding the session,
encouraging participation and writing ideas down.
Brainstorming works best with a varied group of people. Participants
should come from various departments across the organisation and have
different backgrounds. Even in specialist areas, outsiders can bring fresh
ideas that can inspire the experts.There are numerous approaches to
brainstorming, but the traditional approach is generally the most effective
becaus e it is the most energetic and openly collaborative, allowing
participants to build on each others' ideas.
There are four basic rules in brainstorming (Osborn, 1963) intended to
reduce social inhibitions among team members,stimulate idea generation,
and increase overall creativity:

No criticism: Criticism of ideas are withheld during the brainstorming

session as the purpose is on generating varied and unusual ideals

and extending or adding to these ideas. Criticism is reserved for the

evaluation stage of the the process. This allows the members to feel
comfortable with the idea of generating unusual ideas.

Four ways to deal with sudden criticism at workplace

It isn't easy to deal with criticism but it hurts a lot more when it catches you
off guard. What's important, though, is how you react, for it can have a
serious impact on your career. ET explains how you can take criticism in
your stride, and make it work for you.
Don't React
Hold your words, and never try to guess what the other person is thinking.
"Nobody likes feedback but one should refrain from reacting immediately .
Reacting in an emotional way may have unwanted repercussions. When
one reacts, the critic starts emphasising his point further, which leads to
even more criticism," says Pravin Subba, head, human resources, Greenply
Industries.
Hear Them Out
Try to see the critic's point. When you don't acknowledge what the other
person is saying, the conversation is sure to take a negative turn. Ask the
person who is criticising you for the specific instance and nature of your
mistake. "I usually encourage employees to ask me questions while I am
giving feedback. Once people know what they are being criticised for, they
start relating to it. The whole process after that becomes smooth," says
Subba.
Ask for Feedback
The person who is criticising you has his or her reasons and might even
have a solution to offer. It is safe to ask them him how you can do better.
"When my seniors criticise my work, I regularly ask them for feedback.
This way I make sure I don't miss out on anything and with their
perspective in my mind, it's much easier to rework a copy", says Nivedita
Agashe, copywriter, Taproot India.
Be Confident
At times, you might realise that the person criticising you is wrong. Then
too, you must wait for the right time, making sure he or she is ready to
listen . "Make your point in a confident and detailed manner. Assess what
you are saying in your head before you actually say it. If the other person is
still not ready to listen, approach someone higher up and explain the

situation. But use this only as a last resort," says Subba.

Welcome unusual ideas: Unusual ideas are welcomed as it is normally
easier to "tame down" than to "tame up" as new ways of thinking and
looking at the world may provide better solutions.
Quantity Wanted: The greater the number of ideas generated, the
greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
Combine and improve ideas: Not only are a variety of ideals wanted,
but also ways to combine ideas in order to make them better.
Brainstorming Steps:
Gather the participants from as wide a range of disciplines with as broad
a range of experience as possible. This brings many more creative
ideas to the session.
Write down a brief description of the problem - the leader should take
control of the session, initially defining the problem to be solved with
any criteria that must be met, and then keeping the session on
course.
Use the description to get everyone's mind clear of what the problem is
and post it where it can be seen. This helps in keeping the group
focused.
Encourage an enthusiastic, uncritical attitude among brainstormers and
encourage participation by all members of the team. Encourage
them to have fun!
Write down all the solutions that come to mind (even ribald ones). Do
NOT interpret the idea, however you may rework the wording for
clarity's sake.
Do NOT evaluate ideas until the session moves to the evaluation phase.
Once the brainstorming session has been completed, the results of
the session can be analyzed and the best solutions can be explored
either using further brainstorming or more conventional solutions.
Do NOT censor any solution, no matter how silly it sounds. The silly ones
will often lead to creative ones - the idea is to open up as many
possibilities as possible, and break down preconceptions about the
limits of the problem.
The leader should keep the brainstorming on subject, and should try to
steer it towards the development of some practical solutions.
Once all the solutions have been written down, evaluate the list to
determine the best action to correct the problem.