Is The Baldrige Award Still About Quality?
- Topics:
- Total Quality Management
- Source:
- QCI International
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Overview: When total quality management reached its zenith, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was launched. At the time, big industry was sold on the idea that quality can make a substantial difference, and the academic community was warming to it too. The American Society for Quality Control helped to administer the award, which suggested, at least symbolically, that quality would be the award's foremost concern. This article looks at where the Baldrige Award is heading and why. No one wants to imply that Baldrige winners are unworthy. The award process--for all its faults--is rigorous and fair, and the winners--for the most part—are deserving. The award's focus has been shifting from quality management to general management. Therefore, the award has become a compromise aimed at pleasing various interest groups, hampering its original quality-centered and customer-focused purpose. For all its flaws, the Baldrige Award still puts quality in the public eye. It still encourages companies to better themselves. It continues to promote sharing of best practices. In addition, because the award is not set in concrete, perhaps critiques of it, such as this one, will contribute to a course correction.
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Format: HTML | Date: Jan 2003 | Pages: 1
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