Workers′ Objectives in Quality Improvement

The purpose of the article is to show, through a case study, that the reasons motivating members and non‐members of a quality circle to improve quality are not limited to those formulated in the literature. We thereby concur with Fiona Wilson who, in an article published in a recent issue of Employee Relations , showed that the psychological reward is not enough. In the workshops under study, members and non‐members obtained better working conditions – for example lay‐offs have stopped, transfer of employees from one workshop to another or from one job station to another is a thing of the past – by improving quality through the direct impact that their action was having on the organisation′s position in the market and, consequently, on the increase of production volumes.