WEEK 3 (Discussion)—Baldrige Framework, Part I
DISCUSSION: THE BALDRIGE EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK, PART I
For this week’s commentary, take time to peruse the 2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2023). This source is one of the required textbooks listed on the syllabus.
The antecedent of the Baldrige Excellence Framework is the Deming Prize, as introduced by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers. Recognizable quality-related problems in US-based organizations prompted President Ronald Reagan to instigate a series of public inquiries into the problems of US productivity, starting in 1981. In the United States, various industry associations with missions of promoting quality improvement in organizations, notably the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), and National Advisory Council for Quality (NACQ), held a series of conferences in 1983 to devise a strategy for adapting the Deming Prize to a US-based corollary award or manner of recognition (Dooley et al., 1990). These associations joined with members of public agencies to found the National Organization for the United States Quality Award, which would formalize the criteria for the prospective recognition. Naming the distinction after the Secretary of Commerce, President Reagan signed the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act on August 20, 1987, only four weeks after Baldrige’s death (at age 64, in a rodeo accident).
As a product of this series of events, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) is therefore unique primarily in its instituting comprehensive quality criteria for organizations in a government-sanctioned structure rather than leaving those criteria and associated recognitions in the domain of private industry associations. This singular feature of the Baldrige Framework distinguishes it from the Deming Prize and marks the instigation of the first nationally regulated award for organizational quality in the world. Other countries would follow this pattern to create today’s proliferation of national quality awards, virtually all of them modeled in whole or in part on the Baldrige precedent. In turn, of course, the origin of the Baldrige precedent is the Deming Prize. As in the case of most national quality awards, the MBNQA is a distinction for US-based companies alone, although non-US-based companies have often adapted the MBNQA criteria to their own quality improvement efforts. By comparison, since 1989 the Deming Prize has been open to companies from all countries.
Select a Question to Answer
For this commentary, select one of the following MBNQA core concepts. Explain the concept in your own words. As in last week’s discussion board task, this effort will demand some creativity, as the temptation to copy the description from the source is strong. Nevertheless, until one is able to express an idea correctly using alternative phraseology from the original source, one has yet to understand the idea.
Next, identify an example of the selected concept from your own experience as part of a team or organization. Try to explain how the experience that you have recounted qualifies as an example of the identified concept. The experience that you cite may exemplify either a success or a failure in applying the concept. The point is to address the concept adequately, in either context.
As in last week’s task, the aim of this exercise is to motivate careful thought into the facets of the MBNQA. More than one perspective is available in answer to each concept. Be creative in your self-expression, but formal, as mandated by the rhetorical expectations of this course.
#1. Leadership: How does leadership in the MBNQA differ from common leadership theory?
#2. Strategy. What is the essence of strategic thinking from the perspective of the MBNQA?
#3. Customers. How does the MBNQA apply the novel concept of the voice of the customer?
#4. Workforce. To what do the MBNQA criteria refer by reference to workforce engagement?
#5. Operations. How does the MBNQA incorporate the PDSA cycle into the idea of processes?
#6. Results. What differentiates the definition of results in the MBNQA from the common idea of results in general parlance?
#7. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management. Where do the MBNQA criteria draw the line between adequate measurement and exhaustive measurement?
#8. Core Values and Concepts. How do the core values and concepts in the MBNQA effectively overlap with Ackoff’s (1973) philosophy of systems thinking?
As before, clearly indicate your selected item first, by indicating the number. Write at least 300 words (as defined in the syllabus). Again, your concept may demand more detail than that short length allows. Review the Week 2 writing criteria for further details on correctness.
To amend your main commentary (before the deadline), type “AMENDED SUBMISSION” at the top of the new version.
References
Ackoff, R. L. (1973). Science in the systems age: Beyond IE, OR, and MS. Operations Research, 21(3), 661–671. https://www.jstor.org/stable/169376
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. (2023). 2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Proven leadership and management practices for high performance. National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications/baldrige-excellence-framework/businessnonprofit
Dooley, K., Bush, D., Anderson, J., & Rungtusanatham, M. (1990). The US Baldrige Award and Japan’s Deming Prize: Two guidelines for total quality control. Engineering Management Journal, 2(3), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.1990.11414580
