Introduction
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is an award established in 1987 by the U.S Congress to create awareness of quality management and to recognize companies that have implemented successful quality management systems. This award is given annually in six different categories ranging from manufacturing, small business, services, education, healthcare to non-profit. It was named after the late secretary of commerce Malcolm Baldrige and it is managed by the U.S. Department of National Institute of Standards and Technology. The president of the United States is the one tasked to present the award annually to exemplary organizations.
The Malcolm Bridge excellence framework and criteria are subdivided into items and areas to address. The first item is the organization profile; the organization profile identifies the key characteristics of the organization such as the organization environment. The organization environment analyzes such issues as the services offered by the institution, the mission, vision and values of the organization. In addition, it addresses the workforce profile and the organizational relationships with the customers and stakeholders. The organization situation asks regarding the competitive and the collaborative environment in which the organization operates including the key challenges, advantages and the system for establishing and preserving the company’s competitive advantage.
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The criteria and framework also delve into the leadership of the organization. It analyzes how the organization governance system fulfills its legal ethical and societal responsibility. This framework also studies how companies develop their strategic objectives and action plans as well as how they implement them. It attempts to see the key process steps in developing the strategic objectives of the organization. The short term and long term planning horizons of the organization are brought into the limelight to provide a clear insight on where the organization is headed.
The health care and item commentary provide a summary of categories and items. One of the elements is the organization profile; it provides a framework for understanding an organization to prioritize the information one presents in response to healthcare criteria. The commentary requires one to understand the essence of an organization, the reasons it exists and where the senior leaders want to take it in the future. This clarity helps in making and implementing strategic decisions affecting the organization’s future. The second aspect of the organization description addressed by the commentary understands one’s core competencies. A precise identification and thorough understanding of organization core competencies are central to the success in the future and competitive performance. Understanding the regulatory environment is the third item, and it involves the environment in which an organization operates. Understanding this environment is crucial in making the effective operational and strategic decisions. It also allows one to identify the areas the company is complying with the minimum requirements of applicable laws, standard of practice and regulations. The commentary also explains on the identification of governance roles and relationships and the role of suppliers.
The commentary on organization purpose requires an institution to know their competitors, the number of competitors they have, and their essential characteristics responsible for determining the competitive advantage in the healthcare industry. It also requires an organization to know their organizational challenges such as the operation costs, expanding and decreasing markets, economic conditions, rapid technological changes, availability of skilled personnel, retirement, and an aging workforce. It also requires an organization to know their strategic advantages such as brand recognition, reputation for health care services, supply chain integration, and societal responsibility.
Another category is the leadership category that asks how senior leaders’ personal actions and the governance system guides and sustains the organization. It breaks down the leadership into two parts; the senior leadership and the governance and societal responsibly. The commentary on senior leadership focuses on the role of senior leaders in setting up values and directions creating and balancing the value of all stakeholders. The other issue in the commentary is the role model senior leaders; this commentary recognizes that current leaders need to develop future leaders through personal mentoring or participation in leadership development. Governance and societal responsibilities, on the other hand, focuses on organization governance, legal compliance, ethical risks, preservation of natural resources, societal responsibility, community support and community health.
The second category is the strategy asking how an organization develops strategic aims, action plans, and implementation. It divides this group into two strategic development and strategic implementation. The commentary on strategic development focuses on a context for strategy development, a future-oriented basis for action, competitive leadership, and work systems. On the other hand, policy implementation focuses on developing and deploying action plans, performance analyses to support allocation, creating workforce and plans, projecting the future environment, and projecting and comparing an organization performance.
The third category is the customer asking how an organization engages clients and customers for long-term marketplace success. It includes how organization listens to the customer's voice and how they build relationships. The commentary addresses on customer listening, actionable information, listening and learning organization strategy, customer and marketplace knowledge, and customer satisfaction with competitors. Customer engagement is the second subsection and its commentary deals with customer relationship strategy, brand management, and complaint management.
Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management is another category. Its analysis focuses on aligning and integrating organization performance management system using competitive data, reviewing performance data, analyzing performance, aligning performance evaluation, planning, and understanding causality.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Baldrige criteria aim at providing a systematic perspective, by looking at the alignment and integration across an organization. The Criteria provide a systems perspective by looking at alignment and integration across an organization. It is also used to assess an organization’s performance, helping an organization to identify its strength, opportunities for improvements and the gaps they have to deal with.
References
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). (n.d.). Retrieved November 04, 2016, from http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/malcolm-baldrige-award/overview/overview.html
State, B. (2016). 2015–2016 Baldrige Excellence Framework (Health Care). Retrieved November 04, 2016, from https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications/baldrige-excellence-framework/health-care
