For your final assignment, you will chose one winning Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) organization to research, analyze, summarize and report by creating a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
Choose from the following link: https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/award-recipients
The presentation will highlight how the organization, through its answers to the various Baldrige questions, views its organization as a system (recall your readings concerning system thinking, learning organizations and the Fifth Discipline). In particular, you will highlight how the organization has addressed sustainability (recall the Triple Bottom Line) and continuous improvement.
To begin the assignment, you must choose one of the past Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winning organizations (do not select Southcentral Foundation since we have used that for your other Baldrige assignments). You will find a list of all past winners by browsing Baldrige Award Recipients.
On the page you will find winning organizations categorized by year won and the organizational sector. Choose the sector you are interested in exploring (for example Manufacturing, Healthcare, Education etc.) then chose an organization you would like to study.
Click on the link labeled Award Application Summary (under your chosen company) and an application summary will be displayed as a pdf file (Note: the application should be around 50 pages – if not, it is probably not complete. Check with your instructor if you have any concerns about the company’s application). If there is not an application summary page, then do not select that organization.
Basic Components of your Presentation
A brief introduction of the organization, its industry, competition (if any), and any other notable characteristics to help the reader better understand the organization and its environment. Often it is helpful to know an organization’s key products/services, customers, and any important specific values or cultural norms.
Discussion of the systemic nature of the organization through its use of processes, results and improvement strategies. Note: Don’t just list questions and answers from the various Baldrige criteria – demonstrate how the holistic nature of the application and answers to the various questions paints a picture of a system-thinking organization.
Answer the question as to whether the organization sees itself as a learning organization – what evidence exists (or doesn’t) to suggest that the leaders and employees are a learning organization?
Is the organization sustainable? What evidence exists to suggest the organization has adopted the major tenets of the Triple Bottom Line? Are they stronger in some areas but lacking others?
Some Helpful Considerations
Make the presentation as professional as possible using appropriate graphics, tables, or other supporting evidence. Make sure to check your spelling and grammar!
How long should the presentation be? If it were to be given in the classroom (which it isn’t since it’s online!), the target for the presentation would be about 20 minutes. The important point, however, is to make sure your slides tell the story of the organization and how it is run as a system, a learning organization, and follows the tenets of the Triple Bottom Line.
One purpose of this assignment is to take what you learned from analyzing each criterion of the Southcentral Foundation application and apply it to a totally different organization. In a true sense you are explaining to the professor why the organization is world-class (i.e. won a national Baldrige award) and what is it they do, from a system perspective and from the Triple Bottom Line perspective, that makes them standout.
So, there is a relationship to the Southcentral Foundation research you performed where you looked at each specific Baldrige criterion. But, for your presentation, it is not necessary to comment on each of the criteria, individually, but you can discuss the major processes and subsystems that make the company great. For example, I would contend that the Southcentral Foundation is a very strong organization. In a true sense, they have a culture of excellence within their people and, in turn, they treat their people well. It isn’t necessary to call out the exact Baldrige criterion and reference number but, instead, discuss how this culture has instilled excellence in the organization. Consider the major concepts we learned in class – systems thinking, learning organizations, triple bottom line, etc.
As for the slides, themselves, you don’t need to have a lot of text describing details – bullets are fine. You may need a little more text than you might if you were presenting in class, but, when possible, let the bullet items do the talking. If you want to add some text to the notes section of the Powerpoint, feel free to do so, but I would only do this to support a bullet that may need more explanation. There is no need to record audio unless you would just like to add that element.
