There is a certificate on the wall of my office saying that, in June of 1991, I qualified as a Quality Engineer. That certification is no longer valid, since I no longer work in that field, but it is a reminder of the hours of training that I took in statistical process control, in management, and in the philosophy of W. Edwards Deming. I’m afraid that I would have to take refresher courses in all the math that it took to acquire that certificate, but the management philosophy of Dr. Deming has stuck with me all these years.

Dr. Deming became a hero in Japan after the second World War when he inspired the management of Japanese industrial corporations with his management philosophy. This was the main reason why the quality of Japanese goods increased dramatically in the early 1950s. Deming did not come to the attention of Americans until many years later. One factor that brought him to attention was when Ford discovered that buyers preferred Japanese made transmissions in the Ford Tempo over the American-made transmission. The transmissions were made to exactly the same specifications, but the Japanese transmissions performed better. Ford engineers tore transmissions apart and found that though both the American and the Japanese manufacturer produced parts within the tolerance limits, the parts in the Japanese transmission had half the variation in size. That made for a much smoother transmission and a much longer lasting transmission. Eventually Deming became a consultant to Ford Motor Company and that may even be a factor in the survival of the Ford Motor Company.

When Ford hired Deming, they expected that he would begin with intensive training in statistical technology. But rather he wanted to talk to them about their system of management. Deming was concerned that North American management devalued workers, stifled productivity, and produced much waste and poor quality in the finished products.

Deming was a devout man and his philosophy was based on profound Christian convictions, but he did not present them to the corporate world as Christian principles, probably because he knew that would lead to them being rejected outright. What he was really asking of management was a repentance, though he did not use that word. He did use the Greek word metanoia in his book, but that word was eliminated from his book after his death. Metanoia is the word translated as repentance in our Bibles.

He believed that workers needed to be treated as people, not as cogs in a machine. He believed that there should be a system in the workplace that allowed all employees to work together toward a common goal. He believed that slogans, incentives for greater productivity, annual employee reviews, and so much of the common business philosophy of North American industry was meant to make people compete against each other and thus devalued people. A major change in attitude was needed to implement Deming’s philosophy, but when that philosophy was fully implemented the results were astounding: production increased; profitability increased; and people were happy with the job that they were doing.

This is just a brief overview of Dr. Deming’s philosophy, but it should be evident that it runs directly counter to the Calvinist work ethic. Calvinism teaches that people cannot really know if they are saved or not. The search for some kind of assurance led to a belief that financial success was evidence of God’s favour. This inspired an individualistic drive to work harder and harder in order to succeed, but since it was an individualistic striving for authentication, it was very competitive and detrimental to working together toward a common goal. Dr. Deming did not tell people to work smarter, not harder, but to have a common goal and work together to attain that goal.

Think about it for a moment. We recognize the importance of this principle in our homes and in our churches, why shouldn’t it also work in our workplaces? This does not mean that all people are inherently good and management just needs to get out of the way, but it does mean that people are more than robots. They have feelings, aspirations and a need to feel that they are contributing to something worthwhile. When management respects their workers, they tap into that basic nature of all mankind.