ROLE OF QUALITY CIRCLE AS A PROBLEM

SOLVING TOOL IN AN ORGANISATION

Ms. Harleen Kaur
Assistant Professor, JCD Institute of Business Management, Sirsa

ABSTRACT
There is no recognized definition of the concept of quality circles. However, a consensual definition is that
quality circle is a group of employees working together, doing same kind of job at same place and regularly
meet each other to sort out the professional surmount problems to improve their performance in toto. It is a
formal mechanism, so as to solve the problems with participative interaction among employees. This concept is
not just a common room for the employees in any institute, rather it is a concept vide which each employee from
the president to trainee, meet together for their quest for quality for the organization they work for.

I. INTRODUCTION

This concept of Quality Circle was firstly originated in America, however, proliferated in Japan. This is the only
country that faced nuclear attacks by devastating the two thriving cities of Japan but Japan earned its pristine
honour once again due to the committed and determined people of Japan by adopting Quality Circles. Quality
Circles are also known problem solving technique from its scratch. This concept is based on recognition of the
work of an important worker as a human being who improvises his wisdom, experience and intelligence, so as
to desideratum benefit the organization. This concept has basically three attributes:
1. It is form of participation in management.
2. It is a development technique for the human resource.
3. It is a problem solving technique.

II. COMPOSITION
The group of employees may contain 6 to 12 for the same cause and voluntarily work conjointly to identify the
problems and to work on the bottlenecks in their respective jobs with a common goal to sustain the mutual
upliftment of employees and organization. This is not an inter-departmental group, rather it is a a homogeneous
group, participating in organizational activities to sort out the organizational problems.

III. OPERATIONS OF QUALITY CIRCLE

The operation of quality circle works as under:
The threshold meeting takes place in first week, where members of the team Quality circle assemble at the
designated place at a scheduled time and elect a leader through voting method. Stationary items are provided to
all the members to pen down their views or make notes. Meeting is addressed by a facilitator. After the
facilitator, leader proceeds with the further proceedings and after addressing the issues to the members, he wraps

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the proceedings and members are asked to conduct brainstorming for the antoher meeting.
In the another meeting, all the members come with identification of various problems proving hurdles in the
way of working of the organisation. There are chances that top management may not have the knowledge of
such problems. These problems are sorted and arranged in a manner, so as to be tackled by the concerned
agencies one by one. This happened as a result of brainstorming session. These problems can further raise some
new questions like specific hurdling jobs, bottlenecks, records maintenance of some record.
In the third meeting, members of the group prioritise the problems so identified durign the previous meetings
that they have identified either on the basis of simplifying the problem by taking up first and try to resolve so as
to develop self confidence among them or on the instructions of leader to give their individual opinions, which
ever gets the more preferences is taken up for resolving first.
In further couple of meetings, the first one problem is tackled in a systematical manner and date to resolve the
problem is gathered from the concerned agencies. Responsible factors, identified as root cause of the problems,
once again are listed by brainstorming. Major factors are then segregated out of all the factors. All the individual
members then take-up problem and suggest solutions. These solutions are then implemented after arriving upon
a concensus under the supervision of members. After solution of the first problem, then another problem is
takenn for the solution in similar and systematic manner.

3.1 Working of Quality Circles

Quality circle can be used in three methods and these methods produces respective results so as to meet the
needs of the organization.
Group suggestion method
Through this method, ideas and suggestions are collected from the members of the group and then capitalize on
these ideas.
Special projects
Executives of the concerned department of the organization can also participate the quality circle to cope up the
critical issues of the organization by suggesting new innovations, technologies, or assisting in solving major
problems. These circles can be used by the management to remove the bugs to assist the employees accept the
change.
Transitional vehicle
Quality circles can be used by the management as a transitional device and organization by relying on the
suggestions of quality circles takes course of action for the development of the organizational culture.

IV. OBJECTIVES OF QUALITY CIRCLE

The multi-variant objectives of Quality Circles are:
(a) Attitude: Changing the negative attitude to positive attitude. For example, changing the attitude of "I don't
bother" to "I bother"

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(b) Self Development: Every person has something special and sometimes his talent may be hidden. This
concept brings out the hidden talent of the employees
(c) Team Spirit: Even an ordinary task becomes a Herculean task if done alone. Team spirit is developed
amongst the employees.
(d) Organizational Culture: There is a need of professional approach to setup organizational culture by
involving all the employees of all levels, so as to motivate the employees.

V. QUALITY CIRCLE PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES

5.1 Brainstorming
It is a technique to encourage and enthuse the morale of the employees in the Circle to express their views and
suggestions in the discussion. It is a meeting, where all the problems, its causes and available options are
discussed. As an essential ingredient of the brainstorming, it is must to have the clear knowledge of the problem,
its cause and available options to cope with it. All the members of the group should apply their mind to solve the
problem. After getting the knowledge of the concerned problem, everyone should suggest according to his own
point of view. There shouldn't be discussed any other topic out of the organizational problem. All the ideas,
suggestions and proceeding should be penned down. In the last, these ideas should be evaluated and shortlisted
by way of voting.

5.2 Cause and Effect Analysis

Cause and Effect Analysis is often used to examine the problems as this technique summarizes and explains
the root cause of a problem. All the causes of a problem are allowed to be recognized through this technique.

VI. ASSUMPTIONS OF QUALITY CIRCLES

This has coined from the following assumptions

 Employees of any organisation are the best persons to render their ideology for the ameliorate the
organisational problems. If shown confidence among them by the management, they can resolve the
problems of the entire organization.
 The workers of the organisation are the actual experts of their field on the complexities and are capable
to do the things right with their expert suggestions. This practice, not only improves the smoothness in
working of the organsation but also make the employee feel motivated and can improve his performance.
 Members of Quality Circle group should participate voluntarily and their joining should be encouraged.
 A Leader is selected as a circle leader by the members of the circle enabling him to have a better chance
to act as a leader, who maintains all the individuals into a group to give better output.

VII. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Jyoti Prakas Majumdar (2011) observed that quality Circle is a very effective program and low‐cost tool
for implementing total quality management (TQM) in industry. A good number of manufacturing industries

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have so far adopted the Quality Circle program successfully, however the Quality Circle concept has failed in
many other cases. To make successful use of the Quality Circle tool in manufacturing industries, knowledge and
awareness of the probable reasons behind the failures of the Quality Circle is essential.
E. Barlow, B.G. Dale, (1983) found that quality Circles are organisational options that are aimed at helping
employees at all levels to achieve greater job satisfaction; they seek to increase productivity and product quality
through direct employee participation. The underlying assumption is that such participation will result in useful
suggestions for improving work methods, product quality, communications, etc, and for increasing employee
commitment to implement these changes. Most Quality Circle developments have taken place with industrial
blue collar workers. However, wherever there are groups of people, in or out of industry, Quality Circles can be
formed with success. Whether the implementation of a Quality Circle is part of short‐ or long‐term planning
does not matter, the rules remain the same and the philosophy remains unaltered. A Quality Circle is composed
of a small group of employees who genuinely care about others, preferably doing similar work, meeting
voluntarily with a leader on a regular basis, to identify problems, analyse the causes, recommend their solutions
to management and, wherever possible, implement solutions.
Everett E. Adam Jr. (1991) held that quality circle advocates suggest a wide array of positive results when
this participation technique is used. This study explores the importance of company, employee group (circle or
non-circle), and time as well as their interactions. Assessment of circle performance was measured by employee
attitudes, actual performance, and facilitator perception. This study did not support small group behavior and
group dynamics research, as well as quality circle case study reports, that suggest attitudes will improve when
quality circles are formed and will remain improved over time. Actual performance indicated cost savings and
perceived circle success in three of the four circles, even though neither attitudes nor quality significantly
improved over time.
Dieter and Berger et al. (1995) observed society of panel doctors Südbaden, Germany, has constituted a
group of experts from the Department of General Medicine of the university hospital and practising general
practitioners (GPs) to develop an organisational and conceptional framework for setting up quality circles. At
present, 23 quality circles with 6-12 participants are holding regular meetings every 4 to 8 weeks in the region
of Südbaden. The group members, who are all physicians working in primary health care, are selecting and
discussion topics which are important in general practice. In order to facilitate the discussions, the research
group has developed predefined guidelines covering a wide range of common and important conditions in
general practice (Hypertension, sleeping disorders, diabetes mellitus, COPD, dementia, lower back pain, cardio-
vascular disease, depression, headache, vertigo etc). In presenting these structurized guidelines, the moderator
prompts and encourage the group members to identify common problems in their own practices. The use of
these guidelines in, quality circles and research may provide a starting point for developing consensus
guidelines. The quality circle projects is given as systematic evaluation for both participants and moderators at
different levels. Main objectives of the assessment are the recruitment, motivation and the specific goals of
general practitioners to participate in quality circles. Currently, we are evaluating the development of quality
circle for a period of 18 months.

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Bholanath Dutta (2009) found that quality becomes the foundation, the base from which new initiatives are
spawned in world-class companies. Need for improvement and the energy spearheading will always be needed,
so the companies have to find ways to continuing stimulus and excitement of improvement, year after year, and
decade after decade. Successful companies are making changes in their business performance and customer-
orientation as a result of ever-changing world market places. But many organisations failed to integrate the QC
System. The reason, they treated it as another management technique. It is unlikely to stand the test of time. It is
not a stand-alone concept but forms one aspect of the way the organisation want to operate it. Therefore there is
little point in introducing QC where the rest of the management style is incompatible.

VIII. CONCLUSION

Quality Circle is not a single attempt to be made by the organization, however, it is a long and consistent
process, which is adminsitred each time problem persists. Regular meetings are convened, problems are
recognized, strategies are reinforced and continuous monitoring is done. No reward is offered to the members of
the Circle for such meetings and trouble shooting. However, overtly or covertly, both the individuals and the
organsiation are benefited from such quality circles. Moreover, Quality Circle improves the confidence among
the employees, which brings out their hidden talent to benefit the organization. Continuous meetings of all the
members brings harmony among the employees. Hence, top management should take steps to make sucn an
atmosphere, so that management and the employees can cooperate for smooth functioning of the organization.

REFERENCES
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Limited, New Delhi.
[2] Jyoti Prakas Majumdar, B. Murali Manohar, (2011) "How to make Quality Circle a success in
manufacturing industries", Asian Journal on Quality, Vol. 12 Iss: 3, pp.244 – 253
[3] E. Barlow, B.G. Dale, (1983) "A Quality Circle Case Study", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol.
83 Iss: 5/6, pp.23 - 28
[4] Everett E. Adam Jr. Journal of Management March 1991 vol. 17 no. 1 25-39 Quality Circle Demands Shift
in Management Style
[5] Bholanath Dutta, affiliation not provided to SSRN February 1, 2009
[6] City Montessori's and degree college, Lucknow on "International Conventions on Students Quality control
circles"
[7] Schein, Lawrence. "The Road to Total Quality: Views of Industry Experts". Conference Board Research
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[8] https://hbr.org/1985/01/quality-circles-after-the-fad/ar/1 retrieved on 25th July, 2016
[9] Nayak, P. Ranganath; John Ketteringham (1994). Breakthroughs! How the Vision and Drive of Innovators
in Sixteen Companies Created Commercial Breakthroughs that Swept the World. Rawson Associates.
[10] Tang, T. L. P., Tollison, P. S., & Whiteside, H. D. 1996. The case of active and inactive quality circles.
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