Employee involvement in quality improvement: a comparison of American and Japanese manufacturing firms operating in the US

The authors 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 statistical quality control (SQC) tools. The three types of firms represented were traditional American firms, Japanese firms operating in the US, and nontraditional American 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 significantly more than traditional American firms. In addition, Japanese firms operating in the US showed results comparable to these American firms practicing Japanese quality management techniques