Measuring up against the 1997 Baldrige criteria

This year marks the tenth edition of the Baldrige Award criteria. Although fewer companies actually apply for the award than in the early years, Baldrige remains the standard by which organizations around the world assess their performance.

Most major corporations, all U.S. military organizations, schools, educational institutions and a variety of other public and private organizations use the criteria to help them evaluate and improve their performance. Most states have their own Baldrige-based award programs that have served to communicate the criteria to a broader cross section of organizations than the national program has been able to do on its own.

What's new in 1997? The criteria have changed each year since 1988, but have never undergone as extensive a revision as in 1997. One major change is that customer satisfaction is now considered only one of the important accomplishments of an organization. Financial results, productivity, safety, employee morale and other factors are all viewed as important. Baldrige always claimed not to be a prescription on how to run an organization. However, earlier versions of the criteria placed a majority of the points on how the organization is run (approach/deployment), and prescribed certain leadership, planning, human resource and management practices. Although the criteria were never a cookbook, they did favor certain practices associated with TQM, or total quality management.

In 1997, 45 percent of the points in Baldrige are based on an organization's results. The new Section 7.0 includes all types of results; sections 1-6 now focus exclusively on approach/deployment items. Rather than focusing on implementation of a TQM effort, the new criteria focus on having a sound business strategy. It is important for an organization to precisely define how its chosen markets, products, and services differentiate it from competitors. Evidence of a sound business strategy are asked for as the overriding theme throughout the approach/deployment items.

How the new Baldrige works

The new criteria evaluate two dimensions of an organization:

1. Forty-five percent of the evaluation is based on the results you achieve - your performance. Financial results, customer satisfaction, product/service quality, supplier performance, productivity, and HUMAN RESOURCE measures are all assessed. When looking at results, Baldrige focuses on two things: How good are you (level) and how much have you improved over the last few years (trends).

2. The other 55 percent of the points in Baldrige are based on how you run your organization. How you lead, plan, measure, train, control processes, etc. All major parts of the business or organization are assessed, and Baldrige looks for approaches that are systematic and continuously evaluated and improved.

Results scores are not influenced by your approach, and good results are not downgraded if the Examiners don't like your approach. Each dimension is evaluated separately. The criteria in

Baldrige are divided and grouped into seven categories. Categories 1-6 are about your approach in running your organization, category 7.0 is business results.

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award self-assessment questionnaire

Questionnaire directions - The questionnaire which follows is designed to give you a rough idea of where your organization stands against the 1997 Baldrige criteria. Because this is a self-assessment survey, it is not a very reliable way of evaluating your status on the Baldrige score. In fact, if you had ten different employees from your organization fill this out, you might get ten very different scores. The score you get on this survey may vary as much as 25% from the score you'd receive from real Baldrige Examiners. They tend to be tougher than you might be. At best, a survey like this will give you a rough idea of where you stand.

Decide on the scope of the assessment before answering the questions. Do you have the knowledge to evaluate your entire organization, or should you do a unit or location with which you are more familiar? If you are assessing a portion of your company or organization, pretend that whoever is in charge of that unit is the CEO. Whenever the criteria ask about what the company is doing, keep in mind that means your unit or function.

Actually preparing an application for the Baldrige Award and submitting it will give you an accurate picture of where you stand. Up to six Baldrige examiners will independently review and score your application, and you will receive a detailed feedback report with your score and a summary of strengths and weaknesses.

The drawback of using the application as a way of assessing your organization is the length of time it takes to receive the feedback.

You submit your application in April and don't receive a feedback report for several months. A questionnaire like this one can give you immediate feedback without investing the time and money to prepare an actual award application.

To respond to this survey, simply read each question and check the most appropriate answer. The scale for responding to the survey is as follows:

10 = Yes, completely. The statement is 100% true for your organization and is being implemented in every function/location.

7 = Mostly. The practice is mostly true for your organization and is being implemented in most major function/locations.

5 = Somewhat. Most of this statement is true for portions of the organization but not for others.

3 = Slightly. The practice is only partially being applied in a few limited areas of the organization.

0 = No, not at all. Your organization has not even begun to use the approach defined in the survey item.

Instructions on how to score the survey appear at the end of this article.

Interpreting your score: Use the scale below to determine what you score means.

751 -1000 points -- Potential Baldrige Award Winner.

600-750 points - You should be able to work on the areas needing improvement so that your organization can attain award-winning status in one to three years.

400-599 points - With a great deal of work over the next two to three years you should be able to improve your organization enough to put you in competition for the Baldrige Award.

300-399 points - You have the foundation of some good systems in place, but need to work on refining your approaches and further deploying them throughout the organization.

299 or less points - You have a great deal of work to do to make quality part of the culture of your organization. The majority of American organizations probably fall into this category, however, so don't dismay.

Keep in mind that your score on this instrument may not correspond with the score you receive by the Baldrige examiners. When you apply for the award, one or more evaluators will complete a very thorough analysis of your quality results and practices.

This questionnaire is simply designed to give you an idea of the factors that the evaluators will examine so you are better prepared for the actual examination.

How to use the survey

First of all, it is important that you realize that a survey is not a good way of assessing your organization against the Baldrige criteria.

When I use this survey in workshops on the Baldrige criteria, I explain that filling out this survey can be compared to doing a psychological evaluation of yourself by completing a Readers' Digest survey. In other words, don't put much confidence in the score you receive. The major value of a survey such as this one, is that it teaches people about the Baldrige criteria in a quick and interesting manner. I caution you against using this or any other survey as a way of assessing your organization against the Baldrige criteria and then setting goals based upon this assessment. If you are interested in establishing a baseline score, there are three appropriate ways of doing this:

Conducting an audit of approach, processes, deployment, and results in your organization against the Baldrige criteria...

Preparing a mock Baldrige application and having it reviewed and scored by internal and external people who have been trained like Baldrige examiners (the AQP offers a workshop to teach internal examiners)...

Actually applying for the Baldrige Award and receive feedback.

Additional uses of this survey - If you do not use this survey to establish a baseline, how else can it be used? Some additional ways you can use this survey are to:

Have executives fill it out to familiarize them with the Baldrige criteria...

Use it as part of a training session or meeting ria...

Use scores by employees to guage differences in perception about where the organization stands in its implementation of total quality management...

Give it to your suppliers to fill out, to familiarize them with the Baldrige criteria.

Applying for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

If you feel a little more confident of your chances after completing this self-assessment questionnaire, you can apply for the real award.

Even if you believe that your organization is a long way from award-winning status in the area of quality, having the evaluators come in and do a formal examination/assessment can be a very valuable learning experience. The feedback you receive will be very helpful for diagnostic purposes for improvement next year.

For a copy of the Award criteria and the application forms and instructions, contact

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

National Institute of Standards & Technology

Route 270 and Quince Orchard Road

Administration Building, Room A537

Gaithersburg, MD 20899

(301) 975-2036

Mark Graham Brown has spent the last 20 years helping organizations improve their performance. He has consulted with organizations all over the world, and is the author of the two best-selling books on how to interpret the Baldrige Criteria.

Mr Brown's clients include the Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Cargill, Ericsson, Livermore Laboratories and Ciba Giegy. His most recent book Keeping Score is about how to develop performance measures linked to business strategy.

Copyright Association for Quality and Participation Sep 1997
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