A study of the relationships between the Baldrige categories

The categories, examination items, and framework of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria present the underlying relationships between the various quality management constructs and between quality management and organization performance. This research uses data from the Arizona Governor’s Quality Award, which is based on the MBNQA, to study the strength of these relationships using path analysis. The results of our analysis confirm the validity of the MBNQA framework. The results from this research indicate that leadership significantly directly or indirectly affects all of the systems constructs, except for strategic quality planning and information management, which was not tested in the model. The results also indicate that information management, human resources management and customer focus have a significant effect on customer satisfaction and business results. A strong focus on customers and employees, in addition to effective leadership and information management is clearly shown to be essential for organization success.