Organization Development Intervention through Quality Circles for Performance Management and Skill Development: An Empirical Analysis

The dynamic business environment has resulted in fast changing trends in human resources management and the domain of human resource management trends have extended beyond 'human issues' per se, but the basic thrust and orientation of these changes focus on the necessity to develop a skilled and flexible work force popularly termed as 'human capital' in order to effectively manage the human talent and to compete in the contemporary stiff competitive business environment. Organizational development is one of the most significant developments in the field of organizational behavior in recent years. It represents the application of social and behavioral sciences in order to gain better insights into understanding the human aspects of formal groups and organizations. Quality Circle is an innovative organization development intervention technique designed to develop human resources. It is a problem-solving technique involving a group of employees who meet regularly to solve workplace problems. Quality circles are established on a permanent basis and are not ad hoc bodies created to solve specific problems. Circle members decide the problem areas to be studied, which may include productivity, cost, safety, and product quality. This article delves into all the relevant aspects of Quality Circles.