Search results

Ever since the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) was established in 1987, many other countries have developed their own version of a national quality award (NQA). These NQAs tend to follow the general framework of the MBNQA with different emphases on criteria items such as leadership, customer focus, resource management and impact on society. This paper is a comparative study of nine major national quality awards (three European, two North American, three Asia Pacific and one South American). It is instructive to note the differences in criteria item emphasis based on a country’s stage of economic development. Multinational companies may find it very useful when their overseas subsidiaries apply for the local NQA following the success of their home companies. Countries that have yet to develop an NQA stand to gain from the comparative information gathered.

Through the analysis of different initiatives of all EU countries in relation to business excellence models, there is a need to map these initiatives and to compare the most “interesting” quality awards of European Union by means of their substantial differentiation from European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) model. The aim of this paper is to propose the necessity for a diverse business excellence system, which respects the cross‐cultural differentiations of EU countries.

This research is based on information gathered by means of structured questionnaires, telephone interviews with representative Quality Award organizations and other written material collected from literature.

The findings are summarized as follows. EU countries do not have a common framework to address business excellence, however the “European Quality Award” based on the “EFQM Excellence Model” is the most widespread in the previous decade. There is a tendency towards own developments on national quality awards in the current decade. There is a clear indication of Quality Awards “nature” across EU: there are the national ones which are supported by their governments in the sense of financial support to organizations and the private ones which are supported by associations, chambers, private organizations and non profit organizations. There is a tendency of all social and business partners (in the governmental and private sector) to participate in the organizations so as to administer and manage the awards and business excellence models. This participation varies according to the political system of the EU country.

This paper reviews only 31 major Total Quality Awards out of the 51 that are identified excluding entrepreneurship awards and regional ones that tend to represent their national quality awards. Future research could include a sector analysis, such as SMEs business excellence awards, or a thorough analysis of public sector awards.

The paper reviews all major NQAs in EU and indicates an inclination to move from EFQM model to a more dynamic system of business excellence, which respects the diverse cultures of EU nations. The models, which are called TQM models, business excellence models or national quality award ones are used throughout the paper with the same meaning.

This paper is based on both a structured survey and on literature review. It is the first time that is proposed to be published.

This paper aims to detail quality award initiatives in Kenya and to propose an integrated national quality award.

This paper discusses sectoral quality initiatives and award schemes operational in Kenya. The KQA and COYA schemes' objectives, procedures, examination criteria, principles and frameworks are discussed and lists of respective award recipients presented. A national quality award scheme integrating these initiatives and awards modelled on the Brazilian national quality award is then proposed for adoption.

While the quality revolution is increasingly being felt in several sectors of the Kenyan economy, courtesy of several sectoral quality initiatives and award schemes, nonetheless, these seem inadequate and cannot keep pace with global competition; hence the need for a national quality award with an expanded mandate, thrust and appeal beyond the narrow sectoral confines.

The paper brings to the attention of practitioners the need for integration of quality initiatives and awards into a national quality award.

This paper proposes a development methodology that uses the assessment criteria of the national quality award as the basis for creating a self‐assessment tool to measure quality performance in organizations. The Singapore Quality Award (SQA) assessment criteria were used as the framework for developing the self‐assessment tool. The SQA award criteria were translated into a multi‐item questionnaire. The self‐assessment tool is used to assess quality performance in various functions of the organization. The scores obtained using the assessment tool was tested against those of the recent SQA applicants. Results showed significant correlation between the assessment score bands and the actual score bands that they received on their SQA application. As of the end of 1998, about 200 business organizations in Singapore had used the self‐assessment tool. Self‐assessment tools using different national quality award criteria could also be developed based on the proposed development methodology described in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a national framework for promoting business excellence (NFPBE) using a quality management assessment framework (QMAF) with information knowledge communication (IKC) as an enabler.

The NFPBE using the plan–do–check–act (PDCA) cycle is developed, re-enforcing key quality management aspects/areas including national quality awards, QMAF summary and national innovation programmes using a meta-analysis.

The operationalising of the NFPBE is enabled and supported by an auditing tool to assess the degree of mentoring provided by universities/research institutions/consulting firms to participating firms whose progress will be assessed by the QMAF. It was emphasised that the success of the framework requires the buy-in of national governments to support the programme through stimulus incentives such as government assistance with the costs of research and development, and cooperative research ventures between universities and companies.

The framework is conceptualised into a process flowchart, which is a blueprint to advancing business excellence in organisations at a national scale. The study is limited to only the conceptualisation of the framework. Therefore, an extended study of the framework implementation/application is required for revealing implementation guidelines.

The national framework has a propensity to enhancing the business excellence of organisations at a national level. Therefore, quality managers and policy makers could use the framework to understand the quality management shortfalls and consider strategies to achieving business excellence.

This research study proposed a blueprint to advancing quality excellence in organisations at a national level, guided by several quality frameworks.

Most organizations recognize that total quality management (TQM) is important but many do not know where to begin or how to sustain it in the long run. There are many examples of organizations that have successfully implemented quality management but there are also as many organizations that have failed in their implementations and perhaps many more that hesitate to embark on the quality journey. In fact, the growth and adoption of TQM in companies have to be facilitated increasingly by national governments. National governments are increasingly playing an active role in promoting and encouraging organizations to embrace TQM practices. Many countries have established national quality awards or business excellence awards to recognize deserving companies. Presents an excellence model for implementing and sustaining business excellence through a structured approach in implementing some of the best practices in TQM found in national quality award winners. Hopes that such a model would guide aspiring organizations in their quality journey. Develops the model using a case study approach on four past winners of the Singapore Quality Award.

With the success of the Deming Prize, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and the European Quality Award, many other countries have developed or are in the midst of developing their own quality award programs. This article provides background information on 16 national quality awards (NQAs) and discusses the similarities and differences among them. Key strengths of each award are also highlighted. Recommendations for developing an NQA are provided based on the findings.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between getting quality awards by companies and their financial performance in Iran's business.

In the first step, the relationship between awards scores and financial performance by canonical correlation analysis was examined. Then, binary and multinomial logistic regression was used to determine the degree of impact of each financial performance measure on getting quality awards. Finally, two forecasting functions were explored: the probability of achieving quality awards and the probability of achieving different levels of these awards.

Based on the analyzed data of 112 companies through canonical correlation analysis, there was a weak relationship between financial performance and getting quality awards. Also, by using logistic regression, no result was found to prove the impact of financial performance measures on getting Iran's national quality awards. It can be concluded that conceptually, deployment of excellence organizational models will not result in favorable outcomes, especially in the financial scope. Also, practically, excellence models have not been well deployed in Iranian companies, or these models do not fit to Iran's business environment. Organizational culture may not be consistent with quality.

Quality awards are given to qualified companies following the establishment of models of excellence such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). The main novelty of this research is to clarify the relationship between getting quality awards by companies and their financial performance in Iran's business.

Deals with some of the quality award programmes applied worldwide. First, briefly describes five quality awards: the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from the USA, the European Quality Award, the Deming Prize of Japan, the Canadian Quality Award and the Australian Quality Award. Second, presents the National Quality Award of Brazil. Outlines its criteria for performance excellence and some descriptors. Additionally, describes the application procedure, evaluation process, and the scoring methodology. Finally, performs a comparison between the major awards and the Brazilian programme in order to identify some similarities and differences among them. It can be remarked that the major internationally recognised quality awards use evaluation criteria which are similar in nature, when compared with the Brazilian award.