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

Change Management Strategy for Converting to Total Quality Management

Introduction

This post follows the steps needed for a company to transition in a total quality management (TQM) operation as outlined in Goetsch & Davis (2021). We begin by listing some of the factors that determine the success of a TQM conversion, and some alternative implementation plans. Next, the implementation process recommended by Goetsch & Davis – the Goetsch-Davis 20-Step Total Quality Implementation Process – is described. The paper concludes by describing situations and alternatives when management is lacking commitment to TQM.

Success of Implementing TQM

No two implementations of TQM are the same, and the success depends on several factors. Mann & Kehoe (1993) list several factors besides management buy-in. These factors include the employees’ age distribution, their education level, whether the management uses long term planning, and so on. There are also different approaches to implementing TQM, as described in (Yusof & Aspinwall, 2000, p. 642), which range from companies not implementing TQM all at once, to implementing it on a department-by-department basis. The Goetsch-Davis 20-Step Total Quality Implementation Process described next requires a top-down commitment to TQM throughout the entire company. There is room for adjusting the pace of adopting TQM (determined with the choice of projects deemed fit for “TQM-ization”), but the process is meant to be total.

 

Implementation According to the Goetsch-Davis 20-Step Process

Goetsch & Davis (2021) utilize a three-phase process for implementing TQM. These phases are preparation, planning, and implementation. The details of these phases follow the Goetsch-Davis 20-Step Total Quality Implementation Process (Goetsch & Davis, p. 419-423).

Preparation

As the implementation of TQM is a top-down process, preparation begins with the top executive (CEO for example) becoming committed to TQM. He then forms a Total Quality Steering Committee consisting of the CEO’s direct reports and with the CEO chairing the committee. If a union is involved, the senior union member is also included in the steering committee. This committee is a permanent entity and replaces the former executive staff organization. With the help of a consultant, they engage in team building and get training in TQM’s philosophy, tools, and techniques.

Control then moves to the total quality steering committee. They begin by creating statements of “vision” and guiding principles. Based on those documents they set broad strategic objectives. Next, they communicate and publicize the statements and their plans, and this communication is an ongoing activity by the steering committee.

The steering committee then identifies organizational strengths and weaknesses – why wasn’t that done earlier? As part of this, they identify TQM advocates and TQM resisters. One of these groups of employees could be added to project teams created during the planning phase (guess which one?)

The steering committee will then establish baselines for employee satisfaction and attitudes (performed by the HR department), as well as baseline customer satisfaction. For large customer bases, satisfaction can be determined by using sampling. Customer feedback must include both extremal and internal customers.

Planning

At this point, the steering committee can enter the planning phase! The approach they should use follows the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Adjust) cycle, so it may be necessary to return to this step based on the results of what follows. For reference, this is step 12.

The steering committee identifies projects that are amenable (or vulnerable) to adopting TQM. One of the determining factors for the initial choice of projects is the likelihood of success. Teams for each project are appointed. These teams can be cross-departmental, and it is handy to know who the TQM advocates are (Goetsch & Davis, p. 422). The project teams are then trained on TQM principles by members of the steering committee. Finally, teams’ direction is set, and they are activated, each starting their own PDCA cycle.

Implementation or Execution

The project teams then lead the implementation or execution phase. They gather feedback from the team members, the customers, and the employees and report their findings back to the steering committee, perhaps on a monthly basis. (Goetsch & Davis, p. 422) This is the “check” stage of the PDCA loop, and the steering committee makes appropriate adjustments, returning to step 12.

The steering committee modifies organizational structure, procedures, and processes, as necessary. They also implement reward or recognition systems. Finally, union rules are considered.

Conclusion

By following these steps, it should be possible to have a company or organization adopt TQM. If there is no commitment from top management on total quality, then it may be possible to “sell” TQM to them, but…

If enlightenment does not work, it may be time to consider moving on to different employment. That is not always a reasonable option, but long-term prospects for your current employment are not bright either, given top management’s attitude toward total quality. (Goetsch & Davis, p. 423)

Yup, enlightenment.

It also may be possible to implement TQM within a single department. Department total quality is a contradiction since TQM requires commitment from every aspect of the company, but Goetsch & Davis (p. 424) note that this is better than nothing.

For companies with management not committed to adopting TQM, there are other courses of action that can get a company close to using TQM: pursuing ISO 9000 certification and competing for the so-called Baldrige Award.

 

References

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

Mann, R., & Kehoe, D. (1995). Factors affecting the implementation and success of TQM. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 12(1), 11-23. https://coer.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/D22_Factors_affecting_the_implementation_and_success_of_TQM.pdf

Yusof, S. R. M., & Aspinwall, E. (2000). TQM implementation issues: review and case study. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 20(6), 634-655. https://coer.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/D22_Factors_affecting_the_implementation_and_success_of_TQM.pdf