To assess the pervasiveness of quality circles in American corporations, as well as to ascertain perceptions of their impact in terms of various organizational outcomes, a 45-item questionnaire was mailed to personnel directors of the Fortune 500 corporations. Some time after the initial mailing, a follow-up mailing was executed to maximize the response rate. A total of 123 questionnaires was returned, 73 for corporations using quality circles and 50 for corporations not using them. The responses supported eight conclusions, among them: (1) companies vary widely in how long they have had quality circles, how many circles they have functioning, and how many facilitators they employ to run them; (2) the identification of job related problems is the most important objective of a quality circle program, the least important being the development of group dynamics skills among employees; (3) training of circle leaders and circle members generally includes components on group dynamics, data collection methods, brainstorming techniques, problem-solving, cause and effect analysis, Pareto Analysis, and presentation techniques; (4) about one-half of the companies have formally evaluated their quality circle programs; and (5) the circles have effected a moderate decrease in production errors. (HOD)