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This article presents an extensive up‐to‐date list of selective references on quality circles.

Japan's adoption (and adaption) of QC circles 10 years earlier than most of the rest of the world, and the role this has played in Japan's advancement as an industrialised nation, is examined. The growth of circles in Japan is charted, and a consideration is given of the implementation of QC circles in other Far Eastern countries, South America, Europe and the US. Training at various levels, to overcome the shortage of qualified people, is discussed. A comparison is made between QC circles and other more conventional motivational plans, and five main issues are analysed; a comparison is also made between Japanese and Western industry and their respective worker attitudes. The necessity for QC circles to become established in the US, and considered a fundamental human resource enhancement, rather than a foolish fad, is stated.

One of the main difficulties with the Quality Circle (QC) technique is that, to the uninitiated, it appears attractively simple in concept. This attraction has been enhanced by the many claims made for it in the management literature. Such claims though, are often based on experiential rather than research evidence. However, a longitudinal study covering the four‐year period 1981‐1984 did indicate that QCs can survive for reasonable periods of time, and with varying degrees of success, outside Japan, providing the organisational environment and circumstances are conducive. The study also showed that the QC technique is not universally applicable; it has real limitations as well. The article aims to examine some of these limitations and to suggest what may be reasonably expected from a QC programme.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an easily implemented and practical stabilizing strategy for the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system. As the status of HIL system in the ground verification experiment for space equipment keeps rising, the stability problems introduced by high stiffness of industrial robot and discretization of the system need to be solved ungently. Thus, the study of the system stability is essential and significant.

To study the system stability, a mathematical model is built on the basis of control circle. And root-locus and 3D root-locus method are applied to the model to figure out the relationship between system stability and system parameters.

The mathematical model works well in describing the HIL system in the process of capturing free-floating targets, and the stabilizing strategy can be adopted to improve the system dynamic characteristic which meets the needs of the practical application.

A method named 3D root-locus is extended from traditional root-locus method. And the improved method graphically displays the stability of the system under the influence of multivariable. And the strategy that stabilize the system with elastic component has a strong feasible and promotional value.

This study attempts to elucidate the role of key influencers impacting the student decision-making process of enrollment for higher education in India from the lenses of Stephen Covey's theory on circles of life.

A sample of 556 students of Delhi NCR, India was selected based on a multi-staged sampling method. PLS-SEM was subsequently applied for statistical data analysis.

This quantitative finding voiced the relationships among the constructs in the proposed theoretical framework, i.e. Stephen Covey's circle of life theory. Additionally, it tinted the crucial role of “College attributes” in reconnoitering the relationship dynamics between key influencers (Circle of Influence and Circle of Concern) and student college choice (Circle of Control).

The present study incorporates only the first-year student population of undergraduate management courses in private universities from Delhi NCR, India limiting the generalization of findings substantially.

The study garners the attention of education policymakers on the cognizance of the role played by parents and cohorts in driving the student's decision-making process of college choice under the circle of influence.

This study is pioneering research disseminating a comprehensive outlook of the circle of life theory of great Stephen Covey engrained upon a compendious conceptual model which enlightens the landscape of the decision-making process of student on enrollment under the influence of key influencers.

Certain Japanese techniques have been introduced to American management; one of these is quality control circles (QCCs). The intent of this article is to address the managerial aspects of QCCs rather than to explore their internal operation. A goal programming (GP) model is proposed and run with a microcomputer‐based program. The purpose of this model is to evaluate the multiple goals of QCCs and the allocation of available resources for QCC members' activities. This model will assist management in measuring the effectiveness of QCCs in the organisation.

The central concern of this monograph is to generate an understanding of the processes of control in industrial relations. Traditionally, the literature has tended to merely reflect the instrumental interests of management and has thus been preoccupied with the problem of improving the techniques, rather than penetrating the social processes of control. The authors contend that this preoccupation has resulted in a neglect of examining the conditions and consequences of control for production.

Quality circles (QCir) method is one tool of favorable effects on organisational change. However, usage of the QCir method for the development of education is still a perplexing, scattered and scarcely attended domain. This paper aims at defining boundaries of categories of topics that could be considered relevant discussions to this domain.

With the basis of Soft Systems Methodology theory and concept development research method, this paper structured a taxonomy of categories of topics. Additionally, this paper afterwards performed a structured analysis, based on the taxonomy, of the total literature relevant to the “quality circles for education” domain.

The results revealed that this line of interest, although limitedly researched, is still alive today, and not dead as was claimed in some studies. However, the core and amount of empirical evidence is yet insufficient for the necessary progress of knowledge of this domain due to the type of research methods used most of the time. Also, fortunately, because of the tabulated structure, the analysis clearly showed the niche topics under this area that are ripe ground for new research. Furthermore, this paper has shed light on another possible future line of research that plugs this domain into a set of synonym circles used in the pedagogy realm.

This paper introduced land marks and border for a subject that was left limitedly visited and scattered for some time, although it was positively praised in several studies. This paper developed a taxonomy as well as drawn the landscape of the subject via performing a comprehensive structured analysis of the relevant literature.

NOBODY can win all the time. From Employer to Worker, from Reader to Editor there must always be some times when each wins and others where they lose out.

Explores how quality‐control circles (QCCs) enhance work safety in a manufacturing firm in a developing‐country environment of the Middle East.

Investigates the role of QCCs in enhancing work safety, based on a case study of the direct‐reduction furnace at Qatar Steel Company (Qasco), a wholly‐owned subsidiary of Industries Qatar and the first integrated steel plant in the Arabian Gulf.

Reveals that, after identifying three causes of problems, the QCC team analyzed the difficulties and was eventually able to implement solutions and achieve all targets.

Reports the role of QCCs in improving work safety in manufacturing companies, and can be used as a template for other firms of this kind.

Highlights a success story in the use of QCCs in a country of the Gulf Co‐operation Council.