Leadership

Why Blaming Workers Destroys Quality: What the Red Bead Experiment Teaches Leaders

Leaders searching for better quality outcomes and higher productivity often look to individual employee performance as the easiest target for improvement. From performance appraisals to bonuses and public recognition, management psychology has long encouraged a focus on the worker as the solution to every organizational problem. But what if the problem isn’t the worker at all? Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s Red Bead Experiment offers a powerful, evidence-based rebuke to the tradition of blaming workers for system defects—and demonstrates how misplaced accountability damages quality, morale, and the long-term health of organizations.