Reflection of the Baldrige Process
The Baldrige process is a compelling rationale that provides essential nutrients capable of generating and re-generating any organization (Murray, 2020). Malcolm Baldridge was a vocal advocate of quality as a tool for enhancing organizational performance excellence that was back in the mid-eighties. He was the Secretary of Commerce at that time. Congress began the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in his remembrance after his unfortunate demise in 1987. The introduction of the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program has successfully created a bridge between leadership and strategic performance. The Malcolm Baldrige National award is the highest award of outstanding performance that can be given to any organization in the United States of America. The performance excellence criteria that is established emphasizes on the need of organizations to be competitive through involving specific strategies that improve performance significantly.
Evaluation of improvement is another critical aspect of the Baldrige process. This evaluation process is monitored, measured, and analyzed systemically to obtain quality results. The Baldrige process provides deep insight that enables organizations to conform to best practices. The Baldrige framework empowers organizations by providing a way in which organizational plans and procedures fuse. This fusion is made possible by involving competent management that is able to implement every decision with ease. These decisions, if well implemented, should sequentially generate authentic results. The Baldridge assessment criteria are focused on good employee relations as a means of creating inner customer satisfaction. Another motive of conducting an assessment is to stimulate improved profitability through self-improvement. By establishing a long term link between the management and the workforce, performance is enhanced appropriately.
The Baldrige Principles
Seven main principles govern the Baldridge process; First is visionary leadership. This kind of leadership can be implemented in any organization. All it takes is will and commitment to the stipulated schedule. That is why it is often recommended that organizations need to hire the most competent managers who will be capable of steering the organization in the right direction. The role of managers in companies is often giving guidance and motivation to the employees. Effective leadership can only be generated if there is total harmony between the management, the board of directors, and the employees, both junior and senior staff.
Second is customer-driven-excellence, which is composed of the requirements and wants that customers anticipate. Most organizations have developed a good tendency whereby all their approaches are customer-based. Many companies, like food companies, healthcare organizations, and even non-profit organizations, always focus on what the customer wants explicitly. They have labeled it as a form of targeted marketing, and indeed it has worked for most organizations. It involves building a stable relationship with customers so that there is a relatively strong bond is established between the company and the customers it serves. The mode of operation has sometimes been described as acquire, satisfy, and retain. This means that organizations need to invest heavily in precise mechanisms that will enable them to gain customers from the external environment quickly. Companies can also poach for customers from other organizations, and it is part of acquiring customers. Once the customers have come to the company, they need to be satisfied by giving them what appeals and then retained so that their value is well exploited.
The third principle is the measurement, analysis, and knowledge management. In this case, what is being described is how to calculate performance. It is possible to quantify performance and similarly measure it accordingly. To improve quality, it would only be reasonable if an organization works with figures so that realistic data is obtained. The good thing with appropriate information is that it is easy to represent graphically and can also be plotted to draw various other hypotheses. When designing modern management systems, quality managers utilize actual raw data that is useful and present in that organization. To improve workforce focus, it is in order for managers to introduce activities that will rejuvenate their employees to focus on the future. It can include annual or even monthly bonus perks to employees who display the highest degree of quality performance (Murray, 2020).
The fourth principle is strategic planning with a customer focus. This implies that customer needs can be included when deciding on the strategic direction needed to be followed. Strategic planning also involves accumulating and storing the right amount of financial capital that is required to run a specific organization. The fifth principle is the workforce focus, putting trust in your team. Influential organizations will invest heavily in stable management, a healthy employee base, and reliable support staff. The sixth principle is process management. Processes that require adequate assessment include delivery processes support processes and critical production processes. The good thing with process management is that if a quality manager finds out that one method is defective, she can redesign the whole process. Some processes will, however, require a change of management while others express gradual improvements.
The seventh Baldrige principle is the emphasis of results. The most appropriate way in which performance and improvement are gauged is by observing results that are generated mostly through scientific procedures. The financial performance of an organization is one of how either positive or negative impacts are recorded in an organization.
Personal and Organizational Learning
The Baldrige National Quality Award does not just go to one single sector, and I have to put that clear for the record. Awards are given based on categorized industries like manufacturing, education, health, non-profit, service, and the small businesses. Last year under the healthcare category, it was Adventist Health White Memorial, which became the first organization in Los Angeles and the only hospital in Los Angeles County to win the prestigious award. The statistics that were presented were minded baffling. There has not been any return of a patient to the emergency room for care after outpatient surgery since 2014. The timing undertaken in heart attack treatment for those with blocked arteries was close to perfect. There is total safety both within and outside the hospital, and there are no cases of gang violence reported. The hospital also got its ratings boosted by the Standard and Poors for its excellent handling of cash-on-hand. Financially, they now have a 5% higher market share than their closest rivals (Roberts et al., 2019).
Adventist Health White Memorial has effectively used the tools at their disposal to improve the quality of their services drastically. It is not often easy to initiate interventions that will automatically lead to a change of any form in an organization. Organizational outcomes are always dependent on the performance practices that are undertaken by the individuals running that organization. It would, therefore, be correct to say that the Management at Adventist Health White Memorial involved intricate performance practices in their routines in a manner that led to an increase in their net output. These successful strategies do not come out of the blues. They are heavily invested in giving the organization its authentic brand.
When performed in an organization is seen to have increased, there is a high possibility that the same organization is going to attract interest from different quarters, mostly the well-established companies. Performance is boosted by innovation. That is, the more innovative an organization is, and the more likely its performance index is expected to increase. The focus on quality has now shifted to creating value, and that is why most companies are doing their best to ensure their products are thoroughly competitive in the market. Any organization that holds the hope of building excellence in its vicinity will have to learn how to cope with people, decisions, and the processes they influence. Another phenomenon that most quality implementers look out for is the ability of an organization to establish a sound organizational management system that guarantees efficient mechanisms for constructing and deconstructing the possibilities of change. For quality to be achieved, the management team needs to put up a robust improvement framework that serves as a guide on where the changes need to be directed. Organizations should stick to a singular policy when dealing with their customers, clients, and employees; Acquire-Satisfy-Retain.