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The purpose of this paper is to use data from the 2008 and 2012 US Senate elections to examine the relationship between candidate size (obese, overweight, normal weight) and candidate selection and election outcomes.

Using pictures captured from candidate web sites, participants rated the size of candidates in the primary and general US Senate elections. χ2 analyses, t-tests and hierarchical multiple regressions were used to test for evidence of bias against overweight and obese candidates and whether gender and election information moderate that relationship.

Obese candidates were largely absent from the pool of candidates in both the primary and general elections. Overweight women, but not overweight men, were also underrepresented. Supporting our hypothesis that there is bias against overweight candidates, heavier candidates tended to receive lower vote share than their thinner counterparts, and the larger the size difference between the candidates, the larger the vote share discrepancy. The paper did not find a moderating effect for gender or high-information high vs low-information elections on the relationship between candidate size and vote share.

Further research is needed to understand the process by which obese candidates are culled from the candidate pool and the cognitions underlying the biases against overweight candidates.

Because of the bias against obese political candidates, as much as one-third of the adult US population are likely to be excluded or being elected to a major political office.

This study is the first to use election data to examine whether bias based on size extends to the electoral process.

Continuous improvement groups are teams of employees with special responsibility for improving quality. This paper reports on the first 12 months of a pilot implementation by Land Rover and gives the main results of initial interviews with team members. The analysis concentrates on the attitudes of members who were previously active participants in the quality circle programme, which was formally closed at the end of 1996. The main finding at this stage of the pilot was that these employees welcomed the increased structure and management control of continuous improvement groups where it facilitated improvements to quality consistent with Rover Group’s business goals. Such willingness to accept reduced autonomy in exchange for increased employee involvement and contribution is explained by characterising continuous improvement groups as a stewardship approach to quality management.

Posits that quality circles (QCs) are a form of employee involvement (EI) which failed due to inconsistent support from management and because they were unable to cope with the realities of organizational power. The QC programme in Land‐Rover flourished during most of the 1990s and is atypical of the national trend where programmes have tended to be short‐lived. States, theoretically, that QCs in Land‐Rover are similar to other programmes in so far as they depend on management support and do not fundamentally challenge the managerial prerogative. Most QC programmes in the UK commenced as an EI initiative, but soon raised issues of participative management which contributed to the brevity of their popularity. The comparative longevity of QCs in Land‐Rover suggests a greater capacity in the company for participative management, although this was unexploited over the long‐term because of the prevailing managerial ideology and its overriding emphasis on economic rationality. Investigates the evidence from the employee perspective.