Quality & Malcolm Baldrige Criteria
Core Values and Concepts of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria.
Following are the core values and concepts of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria
that every employee is obligated to know and understand and to work to
implement within the Network:
Client-Driven Quality.
Quality is judged by clients, whether those who receive services or those
who pay for services. Quality must take into account all service features
and characteristics that contribute value to clients and lead to client
satisfaction. Client-driven quality is a strategic concept, demanding
constant sensitivity to changing and emerging client and market needs and
the factors that drive client satisfaction.
Leadership.
The organization’s leaders need to set directions and create a client
orientation, clear and visible values, and high expectations. The values,
directions, and expectations need to address all stakeholders. Leaders need
to ensure the creation of strategies, systems, and methods for achieving
excellence and building knowledge and capabilities.
Continuous Improvement and Learning.
Achieving the highest levels of performance requires a well-executed
approach to continuous improvement and learning. Improvement and learning
need (a) to be a regular part of daily work, (b) to seek to eliminate
problems at their source, and (c) to be driven by opportunities to do
better. Sources of improvement and learning include staff ideas, research
and development, client input, and benchmarking.
Employee Participation and Development.
An organization’s success depends increasingly on the knowledge, skills, and
motivation of its work force. Staff success depends increasingly on having
opportunities to learn and to practice new skills.
Fast Response.
Success in meeting client needs demands ever-shorter cycles for new or
improved service introduction. It is beneficial to integrate response time,
quality, and productivity objectives. To achieve fast response requires
agility at all levels of the organization, both bottom up and top down and
within levels.
Design Quality and Prevention.
Organizations need to emphasize design quality, which means building quality
into services and efficiency into delivery processes. Costs of preventing
problems at the design stage are usually much lower than costs of correcting
problems that occur “downstream”.
Long-Range View of the Future.
Leadership requires a strong future orientation and a willingness to make
long-term commitments to key stakeholders. Planning needs to anticipate
many changes, such as clients’ expectations, new service opportunities,
technological developments, and new client segments and community/societal
expectations. Plans, strategies, and resource allocations need to reflect
these commitments and changes.
Management by Fact.
Modern organizations depend upon measurement and analysis of
performance. Measurements must derive from the organization’s strategy and
provide critical data and information about key processes, outputs, and
results. Data and information needed for performance measurement and
improvement are of many types, including client and service performance,
operations, market, “competitive” comparisons, vendor, staff-related, and
cost and financial. Analysis entails using data to determine trends,
projections, and cause and effect.
A major consideration in performance improvement involves the creation and
use of performance measures or indicators. Performance measures or
indicators are measurable characteristics of services, processes, and
operations the organization uses to track and improve performance. The
measures or indicators should be selected to best represent the factors that
lead to improved client, operational, and financial performance. A
comprehensive set of measures or indicators tied to client and/or company
performance requirements represents a clear basis for aligning all
activities with the company’s goals. Through the analysis of data from the
tracking processes, the measures or indicators themselves may be evaluated
and changed to better support such goals.
Partnership Development.
Organizations need to build and manage strategic alliances with other
organizations in order to support and leverage resources and
services. These strategic alliances may be with educational institutions,
governmental agencies, and other business assistance organizations.
Company Responsibility and Citizenship.
The organization’s leaders need to stress its responsibilities to its
clients and the taxpayers and to practice good citizenship. This
responsibility should be reflected in the values espoused by the
organization, both internally and externally.
Results Focus.
An organization’s performance measurements need to focus on key
results. Results should be guided by and balanced by the interests of all
stakeholders. The use of a balanced composite of performance measures
offers an effective means to communicate short- and longer-term priorities,
to monitor actual performance, and to marshal support for improving results.
