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The objective here is to critically assess the essential characteristics of quality circles and to focus attention on the factors and conditions which are crucial to the successful implementation of quality circles at Cosalt Holiday Homes. The proposed quality circle programme for Cosalt is discussed and methods of implementation, together with progress to date and recommendations for the future are given. Amongst the main findings is a view that there is a need for a clear commitment from top management, together with a proper organisational climate and favourable shopfloor attitudes for successful implementation of a quality circle programme.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and measure the impact of goal clarity, goal difficulty, and management support on five social and technical outcomes for quality circles (QCs) in a Chinese company.

Survey scales were developed based on previous research and validated using principal component analysis. Analysis of variance confirmed the validity of aggregating individual responses to team-level measures. Models for five outcomes (team member understanding of continuous improvement, team member skills, team member attitudes, team member motivation, and technical success) were developed using multiple regressions.

Goal clarity was found to impact all outcomes. Goal difficulty was found to impact QC team member attitudes. Management support was related to employee's understanding of the value of continuous improvement and to the technical success of QC activities.

All the QCs included in the study were part of a single manufacturing organization. To generalize the findings, data from additional companies are needed.

The results imply that management support is critical to improvement of processes. Even if employees wish to learn new skills, employee's efforts need to be directed, so they are closely aligned with the company's goals and objectives.

This appears to be the first published research study to identify the role of goal clarity, goal difficulty, and management support on both social and technical systems outcomes for Chinese QCs. The findings highlight the value of and need for clearly defined, challenging goals for QC members work on and the need for management support of QC members and QC activities.

Non-participation in outpatient dual diagnosis services presents a challenge for providers assisting clients in their recovery. To better understand factors that facilitate participation, the purpose of this paper is to examine positive recovery states – hope, meaning, and empowerment – as they relate to motivational interviewing (MI) and service use.

Six dually diagnosed adults completed four baseline assessments, four MI sessions, a post-MI tape-assisted recall interview, and one-month follow-up measures. Simulation modeling analysis of phone survey responses, comparisons of baseline and intervention phase data, and grounded theory analysis of interviews were conducted to determine MI's relationship to the dependent variables.

MI was associated with modest improvement in levels of participation, hope, empowerment, and with greater change in life purpose. Key recovery themes were: positive sense of self, increased self-efficacy, and improved relationships. Feelings of safety and trust were tied to greater self-disclosure while more active emotions were more closely linked to the discussion of recovery progress.

The paper's finding are limited by small sample size and phone survey response sets.

To better help dually diagnosed clients sustain treatment involvement, MI practitioners should pay special attention to recovery accomplishments, values, abilities, and self-esteem, while linking these attributes to service participation where appropriate and creating a safe, valuing atmosphere conducive to self-disclosure.

This is the first paper to measure key recovery constructs within MI process, and to explore the role of positive emotions related to MI, recovery, and service participation.

This paper aims to address the generic research question of how promising management practices such as total quality management (TQM) initiatives affect employee relations in South Eastern European (SEE) countries by focusing on managers' professional lives. In particular, this study focuses on the effects of TQM programmes on middle managers' (MMs') career prospects and job security.

A multi‐modal research approach was applied based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. A total of 1,800 middle managers from 73 service organizations in both the public and private sectors participated in the research (19 and 54 respectively).

The implementation of TQM programs was found to have a positive impact on MMs' careers and job security. Nevertheless, it was related mostly to the “hard”, rather than the “soft”, side of TQM. The strong impact of TQM practices on MMs' responses to various aspects related to their physical work, as compared to the small impact of the “soft” side, implies a more pragmatic view of restructuring of the employment relations covenant due to the application of management models in SEE region.

The business literature has presented limited measurement tools for the “soft” and “hard” aspects of TQM. This paper provides a new, more reliable, and valid measurement of both sides of TQM. More research is required in order to further verify the use of such a measurement tool.

Managers should be aware of a somewhat more linear path to career progression and job security through the use of “hard” quality management practices while anticipating less importance to be given to concepts such as empowerment and employee involvement.

This study expands our understanding of how industrial relations can be formed from the application of promising management practices. In particular, it argues that managers' familiarity with the “hard” side of TQM seems to both positively and negatively influence career development and job security, while being influenced by employment sector and educational background.

Discusses the results of a survey into the factors which motivate individuals to adopt, participate in and implement total quality (TQ) in their own work environments. A considerable literature survey was carried out in order to derive a framework which could be used to assess the many factors which might influence individuals. Concentrates on the results of the survey which was carried out to test the frame‐work. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire sent to 220 employees in the sales division of one company, achieving a response rate of 54 per cent, which was considered to be high for this type of project. Uses the responses to assess the influence of organizational culture, environmental and organizational change and TQ training on individuals′ decisions to practise TQ.

World competition is forcing organisations to re‐examine and refocus their operations and business strategies. It has been argued that price‐based competition has given way to quality‐based competition. Several management techniques such as quality circles and “zero‐defects” have been developed and applied in order to improve the quality of products and processes. Here, a concept, operator self‐inspection (OSI), based on the integration of quality assurance responsibilities into individual workers′ jobs is advocated.

The purpose of the article is to show, through a case study, that the reasons motivating members and non‐members of a quality circle to improve quality are not limited to those formulated in the literature. We thereby concur with Fiona Wilson who, in an article published in a recent issue of Employee Relations, showed that the psychological reward is not enough. In the workshops under study, members and non‐members obtained better working conditions – for example lay‐offs have stopped, transfer of employees from one workshop to another or from one job station to another is a thing of the past – by improving quality through the direct impact that their action was having on the organisation′s position in the market and, consequently, on the increase of production volumes.

Studies two Northern Ireland manufacturing companies, Shirtco and Carpetco, to generate some quantitative data concerning possible attitudinal and behavioural outcomes of quality circle (QC) participation. Attention focused on three variables: (1) the attitudes of QC participants and those of comparable non‐participants to the work situation; (2) the quantity and quality of output achieved by QC participants and by comparable non‐participants; and (3) the short‐term absence rates of QC participants and comparable non‐participants. An attempt also was made to measure participants′ attitudes to the QC programmes. The findings at Carpetco were not encouraging, as attitudes towards QC participation were ambivalent, and there was little statistically significant evidence of QC participation producing a positive influence on attitudes or on the quantity and quality of output. Nor was there any evidence of the QC programme having generated significant cost‐savings. However, QC participation may have reduced the tendency to take casual days off work. The situation at Shirtco was rather different, as in one of the three work sections studied, QC participation may have had a positive influence on attitudes, quantity of output and amount of time spent on productive work, but not on attendance. The position regarding the other two work sections studied at Shirtco was much more equivocal. There was no evidence of any significant cost‐savings having emanated from the QC programme at Shirtco. Concludes that unless a QC initiative is accompanied by other changes in the general work situation, it will almost certainly produce marginal benefits at best. Quality circles are probably used to best effect when they comprise part of a wider initiative such as total quality management (TQM). Perhaps it is as a means of helping to put aspects of TQM into effect that the real value of QCs will be demonstrated.

This paper, which is part of a wider research process, identifies the categories of quality management, from the answers provided by those responsible for quality in 106 certified firms, in order to determine the importance of these categories, identify areas for improvement to progress beyond ISO 9000 quality management system series and compare our results with other studies in Spain. We conclude by indicating a set of recommendations for managers of certified firms which wish to progress beyond ISO 9000 series registration advancing towards total quality.

Scholarship on reputation in and of organizations has been going on for decades, and it always has separated along level of analysis issues, whereby the separate literatures on individual, group/team/unit, and organization reputation fail to acknowledge each other. This sends the implicit message that reputation is a fundamentally different phenomenon at the three different levels of analysis. We tested the validity of this implicit assumption by conducting a multilevel review of the reputation literature, and drawing conclusions about the “level-specific” or “level-generic” nature of the reputation construct. The review results permitted the conclusion that reputation phenomena are essentially the same at all levels of analysis. Based on this, we frame a future agenda for theory and research on reputation.