Differentiate between the Delphi method and quality circles. What is a benefit of using each approach?
What will be an ideal response?
The ideal answer should include:
- In the Delphi method, a group of "experts" is established, but there is no interaction among them; instead, they communicate by repeatedly responding to questionnaires. From these responses another list is produced and distributed to all members. The process may be repeated any number of times, but usually three rounds are sufficient for achieving a fair degree of agreement.
- Benefits: The Delphi method is especially useful when you want to involve people who are geographically distant from one another, when you want all members to become part of the solution and to uphold it, or when you want to minimize the effects of dominant members or even of peer pressure.
- A quality circle is a group of workers whose task it is to investigate and make recommendations for improving the quality of some organizational function. The members are drawn from the workers whose area is being studied.
- Benefits: People who work on similar tasks will be best able to improve their departments or jobs by pooling their insights and working through the problems they share.
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