Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

Introduction

This post discusses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), including the distinction between the Baldrige Framework and Baldrige Award Criteria. Next, the award application process is described. Finally, the critical success factors will be applied to a small, fictitious software company.

What is the MBNQA?

The MBNQA was created by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act, signed by Reagan in 1987, and was named after a former commerce secretary. Awards were originally awarded in three categories: manufacturing, service, and small business, but the number of categories has since increased. As of 2007, there are six categories: manufacturing, service company, small business, education, healthcare, and non-profit (American Society for Quality, n/d). A seventh category was added in 2022: community (Baldrige Foundation, 2022).

The purpose of the award is to highlight companies and organizations that make use of quality management standards, including total quality management. The award promotes awareness of the importance of quality improvement, recognizes companies that practice quality management, and allows for an exchange of quality management techniques. Recipients of the MBNQA are encouraged to share non-proprietary techniques about their companies and organizations, particularly at the award ceremony. This allows other companies and organizations everywhere to duplicate those techniques (Goetsch & Davis, p. 424).

One of the criticisms of the MBNQA is that it fails to predict a company or organization’s success. Garvin (1991) notes that the award was never meant to be a predictor of financial success – then immediately advocates use of this measurement anyway. Insert “no, but actually yes” meme here.

The Baldrige Excellence Framework and Baldrige Award Criteria

There are two related concepts relevant to the MBNQA: the Baldrige Excellence Framework and Baldrige Award Criteria.

The Baldrige Excellence Framework lists seven categories relevant to quality-related performance: leadership, strategy, customers, measurement-analysis-knowledge-management, workforce, operations, and results (NIST, 2024).

The leadership category is about how upper management leads the organization, and how the organization leads within the community. The strategy category is about how the organization establishes and implements strategic goals.

The customer category determines how the company builds and maintains long-term relationships with its customers.

The measurement-analysis-knowledge-management category describes how the organization gathers and uses information to support its processes.

The way the organization involves and empowers its employees is covered in the workforce category. The design, management and improvement of key processes are described in the operations category.

Finally, the results category describes the organization’s customer satisfaction, human resources, “governance and social responsibility,” and finances as well as how it compares to its competitors (American Society for Quality, n/d).

These are applicable to all types of industries and organizations, of all sizes. They are intended to allow companies or organizations to self-evaluate themselves against quality standards, as well as to prepare them for competition for the Baldrige Award.

The Baldrige Award Criteria are the factors that are considered specifically when awarding the MBNQA. These are: organization description, leadership and governance, operations, workforce, customers and markets, finance, strategy, organizational learning, and community relations. (NIST, 2025). These can be interpreted as refinements of the Baldrige Excellence Framework.

The Award Application Process

The actual scoring system, judging process, and evaluation criteria were not specified in the Act that created the MBNQA. It was left up to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – then known as the National Bureau of Standards – to decide all this.

Companies submit applications of 50-75 pages describing their practices and performance in the Baldrige Award Criteria. The application fee for companies with 500 or fewer employees is $10,000, and for larger companies it is 19,000. (NIST, 2025, 6 January)

Reviewers then grade these applications. A small set of high-scoring applicants are selected for multi-day visits which consists of interviews and document checks. The site visit fee for companies with 500 or fewer employees is $25,500, and for larger companies it is $40,800. (NIST, 2025, 6 January)

The judges then meet, review the applications and the results of the site visits, and select winners. Winners get a trophy and a pony.

Winners then attend an award ceremony, usually held in Baltimore, MD. Following the ceremony, the Quest for Excellence Conference occurs, and that is where MBNQA recipients can share their non-proprietary best practices and innovations.

Conclusion and Application to a Fictitious Software Company

Of the two, the Baldrige Excellence Framework and the Baldrige Award Criteria, the former is far more valuable to a fictitious software company. The application of the Baldrige Excellence Framework does not require any costly application fees, access to finances and proprietary information, and does not require costly site visits.

The Baldrige Excellence Framework is really the critical success factors that the MBNQA seeks to capture. This is perfect for small, fictitious software companies, especially those at the “ramen noodle profitability” stage. Preparing such a company for evaluation for the MBNQA is simply cost prohibitive.

References

American Society for Quality. (n/d). What is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)? https://asq.org/quality-resources/malcolm-baldrige-national-quality-award

Baldrige Foundation. (2022, 9 August). Congress adds “community” as the 7th category of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards. https://baldrigefoundation.org/news-resources/press-releases.html/article/2022/08/09/congress-adds-community-as-the-7th-category-of-the-malcolm-baldrige-national-quality-awards

Garvin, D. (1991). How the Baldrige Award really works. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1991/11/how-the-baldrige-award-really-works

Goetsch, D. L. & Davis, S. B. (2021). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality (9th ed.). Pearson.

NIST. (2025, 6 January). Baldrige Award Process Fees. https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-award/award-process-fees

NIST. (2025). Award criteria. https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/baldrige-award/award-criteria

NIST. (2024). Baldrige excellence builder: Key questions for improving your organization’s performance: 2023-2024. https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2025/02/27/2023-2024-Baldrige-Excellence-Builder.pdf