Quality Circles (Management)

This text provides a comprehensive and detailed introduction to the theory and practice of quality in the context of 20th century management thinking. The text is intended primarily for students, but could also be of use to practising managers.

* Topical * Leading Japanese, American, and European scholars * Based on proceedings of prestigious international conference Japan is now the world's largest producer of cars but it only began to catch up with its competitors after the Second World War by studying and modifying the Ford system of mass production implemented first in the USA in the early 20th century. Other countries have also developed the system in their own ways with varying degrees of success. The papers in this volume will examine and compare the experiences of different countries in modifying the system, and the impact of the "quality control movement" and lean production in Japan.

This comprehensive text focuses on the transition underway in the fields of personnel and labor relations and guides the reader into the new era of human resources management. The book examines some current issues and topics that are producing solid results--results that make people feel part of the organization and that contribute to increased organizational effectiveness. The authors argue that these practices are not just passing fads, but proven concepts that should endure well into the future. The technical side of the labor relations process is also examined in depth as are training and career development, turnover, absenteeism, and substance abuse.

The development of the welfare state has been accompanied by greater freedoms being granted to workers in industrialized capitalist countries. The themes of this volume concern how governments, trade unions, and workers have acted to promote economic growth and economic accountability with active industrial or worker self-management policies. The key dimensions of economic, social, and political change in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Sweden are analyzed in the book's essays--focusing on workplace reforms and economic management in a variety of national settings.

This masterly new study presents the first large-scale empirical analysis of the changes in British work experiences and employment relationships between the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on the Employment in Britain surveya national survey providing the richest source of evidence to date about individuals' experience of employmentit examines the impact of new technologies, the emergence of new management policies, the changing forms of employment contract, and the growth of job insecurity on people's experience of employment. The authors focus on the implications these developments have for the ways in which skills and work tasks have been changing, the nature of control at work, the degree of participation in decision-making, and the flexibility demanded at work. They assess whether there has been a tendency towards either a polarization or convergence of employment experiences between men and women, and between occupational classes. They offer fresh insight into how the changing quality of work in recent years has affected employee's involvement in their jobs and organizations, the stress they experience at work, and the propensity for absenteeism and staff turnover. While the study provides strong evidence of a marked trend towards upskilling, the authors take issue with the argument that a new type of employment relationship is emerging, arguing instead that the restructuring of the employment relationship has, in fact, reinforced traditional lines of division in the workforce.

Taken as a whole, this volume provides a performance compass for today's public managers, helping them to reconstruct the public confidence in, and support of, government.