Work teams are viewed by today′s businesses as a new frontier to be explored. The effect that teams can have has been demonstrated by the tremendous quality improvement of the post‐World War II Japanese products. Japan has set the example for the development of work teams throughout the...

In the past decade there has been a movement towards “employee empowerment”. Employee/management teams have played an integral part in this change. Recently, the idea of the self‐directed work group has emerged, giving groups of employees both the responsibility over a particular area or...

The quality of American products after decades of improvement has stopped progressing. Historical trends of traditional quality management fail to motivate workers and ensure quality production. A new way of addressing quality is ecessary. Innovative quality programmes provide a stimulus to...