Assessment Alternatives

The previous chapter presented details on how to audit your organization against the Baldrige criteria. This approach is very thorough, but many organizations don't have the resources to use it to the best effect. Most of the companies I've worked with in conducting Baldrige assessments over the past few years don't use the full-scale audit approach. Rather, a number of other basic methods are used. These are listed below in order of least to most objective and thorough, and of least to most expensive.

1. Survey based on the Baldrige criteria

2. Armchair assessment

3. Mock Baldrige application

4. Formal Baldrige or state-level application

5. Audit against the Baldrige criteria

1. Baldrige Survey The simplest and least expensive method of establishing some baseline data on where you stand in your implementation of the Baldrige standards is to send out a survey to all or a sample of employees, having them rate the organization on how well it has implemented each of the items making up the Baldrige criteria. A large variety of surveys exist that may be used for this purpose. One that has been written by the author was published for the last few years in the Journal for Quality and Participation.

Using such a survey, or similar ones available through management consulting firms, is the least expensive way of evaluating your own status. However, it is also the least reliable, regardless of which survey instrument you are using. The problem with any survey is that it is subjective. People responding...