Suggestion programs have always been popular in U.S. workplaces. Until recently, in most programs employees would write down their ideas and pass them on to management via a suggestion box. The widespread adoption of quality circles (QCs) and other group suggestion programs has changed this in many companies. Although QC programs are relatively new in the United States, we have studied their effects in a range of situations. The results of these studies are consistent and suggest that some purposes management has been putting the circles to are doomed from the start. But before we discuss the limitations of QCs and how management should use them, we want briefly to describe their characteristics and examine their popularity.
A version of this article appeared in the January 1985 issue of Harvard Business Review.
