Management Control Systems for Quality: An Empirical Comparison of the U.S. and Japanese Electronics Industries.

Recent attention has focused on how management control systems can be used to support quality improvements in manufacturing. This study analyzes the type and frequency of production and quality internal failure goals and feedback information provided to 1468 operating managers in 64 U.S. and 50 Japanese electronics firms. Significantly more Japanese than U.S. managers regularly receive production and internal failure goals, indicating that Japanese manufacturers have modified their management control systems to focus employees on production and quality improvements. With respect to quality feedback, U.S. control systems are more comparable to those in Japan. Research has shown, however, that feedback without goal-setting does not result in significant performance improvement. The lack of specific goal-setting for internal failure measures in the U.S. suggests that U.S. firms may encounter difficulty in implementing quality improvement programs because complementary management control systems are not in place to delineate expectations and encourage improvement.