ACBSP and the link to Baldrige:

What are the purposes of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program?

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program is a national education program based on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. A part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program is a customer-focused federal change agent that enhances the competitiveness, quality, and productivity of U.S. organizations for the benefit of all citizens. It develops and disseminates evaluation criteria and manages the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in close cooperation with the private sector. It also provides global leadership in promoting performance excellence and in the learning and sharing of successful performance practices, principles, and strategies.

What is the relationship between ACBSP and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program?

When the current ACBSP Standards and Criteria were developed, the criteria for performance excellence were integrated into the standards and criteria. If an institution were to compare the ACBSP Standards and Criteria to the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in education, they would note that there are obvious similarities. The ACBSP and the Baldrige Criteria allows an educational institution the opportunity to demonstrate excellence based on its individual mission and values. Baldrige emphasizes continuous improvement which is also one of ACBSP’s guiding principles.

For more information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, click on http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/index.cfm.

Criteria have been developed for various sectors, including education. The current education criteria can be downloaded using this link: http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/publications/education_criteria.cfm

ACBSP encourages all educational institutions to explore the opportunity to complete a Baldrige application at the national or state level. In addition to submitting an application, the opportunity to serve as an examiner at the state or national level serves as an excellent professional development opportunity for both faculty and administrators. For information about your state program, see the following link and select your state: http://www.baldrigepe.org/alliance/

In addition to all the other valuable reasons for creating a link with the ACBSP criteria to the Baldrige criteria, business schools will find value in describing accreditation to key stakeholders such as businesses, parents, and governments. These stakeholders may not fully understand what is meant by accreditation or the value. However, comparing the accreditation process to the same processes used in securing Baldrige awards will create understanding and agreement. Both processes are based on data collection, documentation of systemic processes, and a focus on continuous quality improvements.

Quality programs outside of the United States

While Baldrige is a US based program, similar quality programs are offered by governments or NGO’s in other countries. Members outside the United States may make comparisons between the ACBSP accreditation process and these quality programs in their conversations with key stakeholders. This list is not meant to be all inclusive but to give you an idea of what quality management tools are available on a global scale:

Latin American Quality Institute - http://www.laqi.org/index.html
Confederation of Indian Industry CII - Institute of Quality - http://www.cii-iq.in/
European Quality Award - http://www.efqm.org/en/
British Quality Award - http://www.bqf.org.uk/
Canadian Quality Award - http://www.nqi.ca/
Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance TPM Excellence Award - http://www.jipm.or.jp/en/
Deming Prize of Japan - http://deming.org/

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 159 countries. ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. For additional information on ISO, click on http://www.iso.org/iso/about.htm.

The Baldrige Journey and ACBSP

The Kansas Award for Excellence (KAE) has a four-tiered application process. ACBSP is currently preparing a third tier application to submit for review and feedback. Previous applications have been reviewed by trained examiners. A feedback report identifying strengths and opportunities for improvement was provided to ACBSP. As part of the continuous improvement process, ACBSP has used that feedback to make improvements in various processes. ACBSP will report on our improvements in the current application to be submitted in 2011. The feedback from this application will be used as ACBSP prepares the fourth tier or full application which we plan to submit in 2013. In 2015, ACBSP plans to submit an application for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Additional information regarding the Kansas Award for Excellence can be found at http://www.ksexcellence.org/.