Participatory Improvement at a Global Bank: The Diffusion of Quality Teams and the Demise of a Six Sigma Initiative
研究了一家跨国银行六西格玛项目中跨职能流程改进团队的扩散情况，发现团队形成在文员相对工资低、晋升机会少、就业占比缩小的部门更活跃，但长期因参与精神与技术官僚项目的矛盾而难以持续。
This paper traces the diffusion of cross-functional process improvement teams in a multinational bank's Six Sigma program. Rates of team formation were high where clerical workers received low wages relative to managers and professionals, experienced weak wage growth, were less likely to rise into supervisory positions, and formed a shrinking proportion of bank employment; and where managerial and professional wage gains and employment growth were strong. These conditions did not provide a stable basis for participatory improvement, however, and team formation faltered in more stratified work-places over time. We argue that team projects are most useful to managers where recent or ongoing workplace restructuring has marginalized the position of clerical staff. In the long run, quality teams prove ephemeral due to tension between their participatory ethos and the technocratic project they embody.