Question

Which one of the seven categories that form the Baldrige criteria is the most significant, and why?

*Remembering that the purpose of Baldrige Performance Excellent is quality improvement, so please explain the response with a focused purpose.

Answer 1

Three MBNQA awards can be given annually in six categories:

Manufacturing

Service Company

Small Business

Education

Healthcare

Non-profit

The education and healthcare categories were added in 1999, while the government and non-profit categories were added in 2007.

The MBNQA award is named after the late Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, a proponent of quality management. The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology manages the award, and ASQ administers it.

THE SEVEN MBNQA CRITERIA CATEGORIES

Organizations that apply for the MBNQA are judged by an independent board of examiners. Recipients are selected based on achievement and improvement in seven areas, known as the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence:

Leadership: How upper management leads the organization, and how the organization leads within the community.

Strategy: How the organization establishes and plans to implement strategic directions.

Customers: How the organization builds and maintains strong, lasting relationships with customers.

Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management: How the organization uses data to support key processes and manage performance.

Workforce: How the organization empowers and involves its workforce.

Operations: How the organization designs, manages, and improves key processes.

Results: How the organization performs in terms of customer satisfaction, finances, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operations, governance and social responsibility, and how the organization compares to its competitors.

The 2019-2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework is available for the business/nonprofit, healthcare, and education industries. The criteria focuses on managing all components of an organization as a whole, cybersecurity risks, and understanding the role of risk management within a systems perspective of organizational performance management.

Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s mission is to improve the competitiveness and performance of U.S. organizations through organizational assessment and development for the benefit of all U.S. residents. The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program is a customer-focused federal change agent that develops and disseminates evaluation criteria, manages the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, promotes performance excellence and provides global leadership in the learning and sharing of successful strategies and performance practices, principles, and methodologies.

History:

In the mid-1980s, U.S. leaders realized that American companies needed to focus on quality in order to compete in an ever- expanding, demanding global market. Then-Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige was an advocate of organizational assessment and quality management as a key to U.S. prosperity and sustainability. After he died in a rodeo accident in July 1987, Congress named the Award in recognition of his contributions.

Congress created the Award Program to:

identify and recognize role-model businesses

establish criteria for evaluating improvement efforts

disseminate and share best practices

What is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that

a U.S. organization can receive. Congress established the Baldrige Program in 1987 to recognize U.S. companies for their achievements in quality and business performance and to raise awareness about the importance of quality and perfor- mance excellence in gaining a competitive edge. Congress originally authorized the Baldrige Award to include manufactur- ing, service, and small business organizations; Congress expanded eligibility to education and health care organizations in 1998. Nonprofit organizations, including government agencies, became eligible for the award in 2007. A total of 18 awards may be given annually across the six categories—manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofit. Within the overall limit of 18, there is no limit on awards in individual categories. To receive the Baldrige Award, an organization must have a role-model organizational management system that ensures continuous improvement in

the delivery of products and/or services, demonstrates efficient and effective operations, and provides a way of engaging and responding to customers and other stakeholders. The award is not given for specific products or services. The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence provide a framework that any organization can use to improve overall performance. The Criteria are organized into seven categories: Leadership; Strategic Planning; Customer Focus; Measurement, Analysis, and

What are the Baldrige assessment criteria.

The Baldrige performance excellence criteria are a framework that any organization can use to improve overall perfor- mance. Seven categories make up the award criteria:

Leadership—Examines how senior executives guide the organization and how the organization addresses its responsibilities to the public and practices good citizenship.

Strategic planning—Examines how the organization sets strategic directions and how it determines key action plans.

Customer focus—Examines how the organization determines requirements and expectations of customers and markets; builds relationships with customers; and acquires, satisfies, and retains customers.

Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management—Examines the management, effective use, analysis, and improvement of data and information to support key organization processes and the organization’s performance management system.

Workforce focus—Examines how the organization enables its workforce to develop its full potential and how the workforce is aligned with the organization’s objectives.

Process management—Examines aspects of how key production/delivery and support processes are designed, managed, and improved.

Results—Examines the organization’s performance and improvement in its key business areas: customer satisfaction, financial and marketplace performance, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operational performance, and governance and social responsibility. The category also examines how the organization performs relative to competitors.

The criteria are used by thousands of organizations of all kinds for self-assessment and training and as a tool to develop performance and business processes. Several million copies have been distributed since the first edition in 1988, and heavy reproduction and electronic access multiply that number many times.

For many organizations, using the Baldrige assessment criteria results in better employee relations, higher productivity, greater customer satisfaction, increased market share, and improved profitability. According to a report by the Conference Board, a busi- ness membership organization, “A majority of large U.S. firms have used the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for self-improvement, and the evidence suggests a long-term link between use of the Baldrige criteria and improved business performance.”