Book Description

Quality management--a management approach that emphasizes improving product quality while decreasing production costs by boosting workplace efficiency--has gained in popularity in the federal government. About 68 percent of the 2,200 federal groups responding to a 1992 GAO survey reported using quality management. However, the same survey found that actual employee involvement was limited. Survey respondents said that problems involving human resource management were among the major barriers to implementing quality management--which, if to be successful, required employee participation. This report describes the human resource management approaches used to implement quality management by 10 federal organizations that have won government awards for their quality initiatives.