A Proposal for the Implementation of a Quality Circle Program at Cumberland High School

Statement of Purpose The purpose of this study was to implement a participative management program at Cumberland High School in Toledo, Illinois. The researcher, who had been principal at the school for five years, believed that participative management may be a solution to what he perceived as problems within the school. These problems included low teacher morale, below average student achievement, and a lack of open communication between individual teachers and administrators. In addition, teacher gains in effectiveness and productivity as based on formal teacher evaluation reports, were minimal. The Quality Circle participative management approach, as reviewed in literature, seemed directed at the core of these problems. Thus, this study was deemed timely and relevant. Procedure Participative management in the form of Quality Circles is relatively new to industry and somewhat new to the field of education. Much of the research in Chapters one and two reviews both industrial and educational use of this type of employee relations model as well as giving justification for its implementation. Chapter three identifies the participants in the program and describes the instrumentation used to judge the effectiveness of the program. Chapter four, after summarizing the research findings, lists six recommendations for the implementation of Quality Circles at Cumberland High School