Human resource management and Deming's continuous improvement concept

This article presents a loss minimization or continuous improvement model for human resource management (HRM). Minimization of losses arising from the interaction of two critical human resource (HR) quality targets, commitment and equity, requires `profound knowledge' of social processes and the development of HR systems. The history of HR can be interpreted as a social continuous improvement process that makes use of four systems approaches: trust, bureaucracy, unionization, and regulation. Variance-minimizing tools that were appropriate for earlier phases of HR history (characterized by higher levels of HR loss) may be too blunt for the level of commitment industry now demands. Enterprise or company unionism may be a preferable quality management tool, although the National Labor Relations Act inhibits its adoption. D 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.