Effects of computer aided quality circles on organizational productivity and satisfaction

The research presented here is a longitudinal field study that compares changes in perceptions of productivity and job satisfaction for participants and nonparticipants in a computer aided quality circles program in a multinational firm in Saudi Arabia. Employee efficiency, productivity and absenteeism changes relaed to the implementation of the computer aided quality circles program were measured by collecting and analyzing actual organizational data. Data for each of the measures were collected for an 24-month period, ranging from 6-months before to 18-months after adoption of the program. The results of this study indicated that participation in computer aided quality circles program had a positive and significant impact on productivity and job satisfaction. In addition, the research findings suggest that using computer aided quality circles tends to make clerical jobs more demanding, and at the same time more challenging.