EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT IN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT - A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND JAPANESE MANUFACTURING FIRMS OPERATING IN THE UNITED-STATES

Considerable attention has been given in recent years to identifying and describing the elements which account for Japan's successful infiltration and dominance of the world market place. Eventually came the diagnosis that attention to quality would be critical to American firms to regain their world market position. Inherent in such a philosophical change in quality management must be a redistribution of responsibility for quality from a single QC department to workers throughout the production operation. Coupled with this change in responsibility must also be an increased use of appropriate tools [statistical quality control (SQC) tools] to enable workers to monitor and measure quality. The above two factors will help firms to achieve atarimae hinshitsu, (given quality, i.e., producing defect-free products). This research sought to determine whether firms classified as incorporating a Japanese quality management approach had significantly higher levels of worker involvement in the quality effort as well as higher utilization of SQC tools. The three types of firms represented in this study were traditional American firms, Japanese firms operating in the U.S., and nontraditional American firms (firms emulating the Japanese approach to quality management). Results suggest that Japanese and nontraditional American firms 1) have a significantly higher level of worker involvement and 2) use simple SQC tools to a significantly higher than traditional American firms. In addition, Japanese firms operating in the U.S. showed results comparable to these American firms practicing Japanese quality management techniques. Finally, it was concluded that many Japanese firms and nontraditional American firms are gearing up for the second phase of quality, referred to as miryokuteki hinshitsu, (the charm of quality, i.e, the personality of products).