Criteria for Performance Excellence
Baldrige criteria are a set of questions that enhance the ability of an organization to better understand itself while providing leadership guidance. The questions also offer guidance for daily management while focusing on improvement. The criteria have seven categories that include leadership, strategy, customers, measurement, analysis as well as knowledge management, workforce, operations, and results.
The Baldrige framework integrates the seven categories where the leadership triad that includes leadership, strategy, and customer focuses on establishing an organizational leadership that is driven to achieve the strategy of the company and meeting customer needs. The organizational profile in the framework establishes the context of an organization serving as the background of everything that i done. The results triad includes the workforce, operations, and the results categories. The triad includes the processes that workforce focuses on, the key operational processes as well as the outcome. Measurement, analysis and knowledge management are the foundation of the system. The category plays a critical role in the effective management and also forms a fact-based knowledge driven agile system that enhances the performance and competitiveness of an organization. All sections in the framework are geared towards the desired results. The basis of the criteria is a set of core values as well as concepts embedded in a high performing organization.
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Core Values and Concepts
The core values and concepts include system perspective which is all about the management of the entire organization as a unified whole with the objective of attaining its mission and moving towards its vision. Another core value is visionary leadership where the top leaders of the hospital should establish a vision strive towards customer focus while demonstrating the values and ethics applicable to the organization and formulate high expectations for the employees. Another core value is valuing people which is critical to the success of an organization. A hospital should, therefore, value its workforce and other stakeholders. Another core value is customer focused excellence where an organization should realize that the customer is the ultimate of the product and service quality. The company must, therefore, consider the characteristics of its products and services and customer experiences that lead to their satisfaction, loyalty and overall success of a company.
Organizational learning and agility is another core value and concept that includes continuous improvement, innovation, leadership and a drive towards better approaches, products, and markets. The learning process must give the opportunity for rapid change and flexible operations. Another core value is focus on success which is driven by a clear understanding of near term and long term issues affecting the organization and the entire market. It also involves the process of managing risk and uncertainty in the environment and balancing the short-term demands with the needs of the entire organization and its stakeholders in order to invest in long-term success. Another core value is managing for innovation which is concerned with the process of making meaningful change that improves the processes, products, services, programs, operations and the business models with the intention of enhancing stakeholders’ value. Hospitals must create an enabling environment for innovation to take place. Similarly, appropriate strategies need to be established and risks should be addressed intelligently.
Management by fact is another core value and it requires the measurement and analysis of organizational performance from within and also from the competitive environment. The ability to analyze the measures of performance as well as the various indicators will enhance the evaluation process of the entire organization as well as the alignment and decision-making process. Societal responsibility is another core value which deals with the emphasis of responsibility to the general public in addition to considering the well being of the society and its benefits. The leadership of a hospital should act as the role model in order to enhance the well being of society. Another core value is ethics and transparency which involves adhering to ethical behavior by all employees in their daily activities. The senior management should act as the role model in promoting ethical behavior and enhancing transparency and open communication in the entire organization. Similarly, accurate information should be shared by all employees and management. Another core value is delivering value and results which involves the selection of performance results and conducting an analysis in order to deliver as well as balance the value of the key stakeholders. The outcome of the entire process should include financial, product and processes. Similarly, customers and employee satisfaction, as well as engagement results, should be incorporated. Additionally, leadership, strategy, and the performance of the society should form part of the results.
Baldrige Framework Dimensions
The Baldrige framework allows organizations to evaluate and improve their processes using four major dimensions. The first dimension is the approach that an organization will use to accomplish its activities. The company will evaluate the effectiveness of its key approaches. Another dimension involves the deployment of the key processes in the different parts of an organization. The third dimension is about learning where the company will try to understand its ability to evaluate and improve its key processes and how the improvements were shared throughout the organization. Lastly, an organization should integrate the processes to align them with the current and future organizational needs. It is therefore critical to determine the alignment of the processes and operation of the entire organization.
Leaders must evaluate the results based on four dimensions that include levels, trends, comparison, and integration. Levels are concerned with the current performance of an organization. The company must determine if the result is improving stagnant or getting worse using a trend analysis. An organization should compare its performance with others in the industry or an established benchmark or even the industry leader. Organizations should be able to track results that create meaning while considering the expectation of all the stakeholders. The leadership must also decide whether to use the results in decision making.
Organizations that try to answer the different criteria questions will identify some of the strengths and gaps in the criteria. Continued engagement in the process will help in the identification of an appropriate way to enhance the performance of the organization by capitalizing on the strength and reducing the identified gaps. Companies can move a step ahead to innovate and therefore realize improved performance and can also acquire a competitive advantage over their competitors.
Baldrige framework and criteria help the organization to determine what works best for them rather than prescribing how the leadership should structure the organization. The criteria ensure that the top management can employ creative, adaptive, as well as flexible approaches while using appropriate tools that will enhance the effectiveness of the entire organization. Using the framework and the criteria will ensure that the company can assess its progress and develop appropriate strategies that can enhance its ability to adapt. The leadership should be able to set the vision and values of an organization and deploy them in the most appropriate way to the key stakeholders. The leadership must also demonstrate their commitment to the core values if meaningful success is to be achieved. Top leadership must also adhere to the legal and ethical behavior of the company in addition to establishing an organizational culture and structure that promotes such values. Ethics should remain a guiding principle to the entire organization and the management must demonstrate their commitment to promoting ethical behavior and respect for the rule of law.
