Employees Perception on Quality Circle Program Effectiveness in Five Selected Malaysian Companies

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of participation in Quality Circles (QCs). The study looked at major factors affecting QCs effectiveness, which are namely; employees involvement, adequacy of training, leadership, employee perception, purpose of setting up QCs, number of projects implemented, management support, job satisfaction, commitment and willingness to expand effort, and intent to quit. An important aspect of this study was the fact that it took place in large manufacturing and service organizations where research on organizational commitment is rare and where commitment and QCs members’ feelings about their organizations are particularly troublesome. Therefore, out of seventeen companies, only five participated in this study. Subjects consisted of 130 employees from five manufacturing and service organizations who volunteered to participate in the study. 89-item questionnaire was developed to meet study objectives. While, QCs members (N=109) answered the whole questionnaire, non-QCs members (N=21) were directed to fill out the last part of the questionnaire. From the data obtained, Pearson Correlation test showed there was no relationship found between training and involvement in QCs, a very weak correlation between leadership and adequacy of training. Nonetheless, there was significant positive relationship between management support and scores of projects implemented. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed to investigate whether or not scores of two groups namely QCs and non-QCs differ significantly. Besides improved problem solving skills that the results show, QCs develop positive attitudes among employees who derive job satisfaction when they feel that their companies are a good place to work. Also, they are more willing to extend their efforts for their companies. Even though, these impacts were more obviously seen in manufacturing QCs (N=56) than service counterparts (N=53), still the conclusion shows that the Quality Circles concept is still alive and effective.

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