Malcolm Baldrige Criteria – A Business Excellence Model

Is there similarity between Total Quality Management and Malcom Baldrige Criteria ?

One may be wondering in real life application, whether there is any different ? Many may argue that there are different and otherwise.  Before you make any conclusion, lets look at the facts.

Briefely, Total Quality Management is a set of philosophy  adopted by business organizations, government bodies even indivuals to perform their goal. It has a set of TQM principles by which it operates. It deal with Leadership, employee involvement, customer satisfaction etc aimed to management your business in a more holistic perspectives.

On the other hand for Malcolm Baldrige Criteria, it is a set of criteria or guidelines to judge if an organization is meeting business excellence level.  The criteria are grouped into seven categories. Each of them clearly states its objectives and set out their respective criteria or guidelines.  The seven Categories are:-

On the other hand, you may take note that the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria are build upon a set of core values and concepts and they are quite similar to the TQM Principles. There are eleven core values and concepts listed below:-

1. Visionary Leadership
2. Customer-Driven Excellence
3. Organizational and Personal Learning
4. Valuing Employees and Partners
5. Agility
6. Focus on the Future
7. Managing for Innovation
8. Management by Fact
9. Public Responsibility and Citizenship
10. Focus on Results and Creating Value
11. Systems Perspective

 
These Core Values and Concepts are embodied in detail Malcolm Baldrige Criteria  which are grouped into Seven Categories mentioned above. Each category has laid up its own set of criteria to the highest standard. While the values and concepts in the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria remain quite unchanged, the detail criteria for each category has changes every year. The idea to review and change the criteria is to keep current to the business changes and needs.