QUALITY CORNER: Internal assessment methodologies: the ubiquity and usefulness of the Baldrige criteria

Companies of all types are investing significant time and resources in regularly “assessing” themselves according to an internally designed set of criteria. More and more, these assessments are focused broadly on entire company systems and less on pure quality criteria, such as the quality of products and services. Although each firm strives to find the “right” set of criteria for their unique position, set of circumstances, and idiosyncratic culture, most seem to gravitate toward a set of loosely defined, generic characteristics which, to a remarkable extent, reflect the broad categories of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria. This article examines the linkages between broadly defined assessment criteria and the comprehensive structure of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.