Deming was right – 99.75 per cent of the time!

Abstract

Deming (1986) was quite adamant that any attempt to reward the individual for supposed personal contribution in the workplace was wrong. This flies in the face of the belief that it is right and proper to reward a person for work well done. It is totally counter‐intuitive to a boss who is trying to motivate his or her people. Of course we must reward our high achievers. Even Harrington (1998), warning that “this is worse than taking the Lord’s name in vain”, felt that Deming had probably got it wrong.  However, Deming, building on the work of Taylor and Shewhart, realised just how little influence most of us have on the final business result. Deming argued that for most people, most of the time, the final result is beyond their control and thus their influence. Rewarding them for success or punishing them for failure is neither fair nor logical. This article examines the basis of Deming’s unequivocal views and concludes, painful as it might be, that Deming had it right – at least most (99.75 per cent) of the time.

Citation

Finlow‐Bates, T. (2000), "Deming was right – 99.75 per cent of the time!", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 31-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/13683040010377809