Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)

The Baldrige Excellence Framework has three parts:

(1) The criteria for performance excellence

(2) Core values and concepts

(3) Scoring guidelines.

The framework serves two main purposes:

(1) To help organizations assess their improvement efforts, diagnose their overall performance management system, and identify their strengths and opportunities for improvement

(2) To identify Baldrige Award recipients that will serve as role models for other organizations.

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) is an award established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to raise awareness of quality management and recognize U.S. companies that have implemented successful quality management systems. The award is the nation’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence.

Purpose of the Malcolm Baldrige Award

• Raise awareness about the importance of performance excellence.
• Recognize companies that show performance excellence and pass on this information to other organizations to tailor it for their own needs.
• Motivate U.S. companies and organizations to improve their quality standards and strive for excellence.
• Help companies and organizations embody the competitive spirit and drive the U.S. economy forward.

Three MBNQA awards can be given annually in six categories:

• Manufacturing
• Service Company
• Small Business
• Education
• Healthcare
• Non-profit

The criteria for performance excellence are based on a set of core values:

• Systems perspective
• Visionary leadership
• Customer-focused excellence
• Valuing people
• Organizational learning and agility
• Focus on success
• Managing for innovation
• Management by fact
• Societal responsibility
• Ethics and transparency
• Delivering value and results

The questions that make up the criteria represent seven aspects of organizational management and performance:

Organizations that apply for the MBNQA are judged by an independent board of examiners. Recipients are selected based on achievement and improvement in seven areas, known as the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence:

• Leadership: How upper management leads the organization, and how the organization leads within the community.
• Strategy: How the organization establishes and plans to implement strategic directions.
• Customers: How the organization builds and maintains strong, lasting relationships with customers.
• Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management: How the organization uses data to support key processes and manage performance.
• Workforce: How the organization empowers and involves its workforce.
• Operations: How the organization designs, manages, and improves key processes.
• Results: How the organization performs in terms of customer satisfaction, finances, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operations, governance and social responsibility, and how the organization compares to its competitors.

The three sector-specific versions of the Baldrige framework are revised every two years:

• Baldrige Excellence Framework (Business/Nonprofit)
• Baldrige Excellence Framework (Education)
• Baldrige Excellence Framework (Health Care)