Baldridge Performance Excellence

Framework: A Manual for

Organizational Assessment
Colton M Stanley

What Exactly Is Organizational Assessment?

Organizational assessments are a necessary

process that seeks to improve or to maintain

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an organization’s performance by determining areas in which change should be
made. A good assessment should be built around the organization’s enabling
environment, motivation, and its capacity and performance. Data on these
categories must be collected thoroughly. The best practice for gathering the
necessary data is to “meet a suitable spectrum of stakeholders… observe relevant
facilities… observe the dynamics among people” (Lusthaus, 2002, P. 16). The
agents of change in an organization are the people who influence and have a stake
in the success of the organization.

Why Should Assessment Be Necessary?

Why should we need to perform

a regular assessment? Aren’t we doing
well enough already? You may be
asking yourself. Here at Blue Sky, we
pride ourselves on providing quality
avionics, gauges, and GPS systems that
pilots across the country rely on to
keep their aircraft flying for decades to
come. It is our duty to ensure that our
company can deliver on the quality
products that we have become known

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for. To that end, this manual seeks to inform all of you of the necessity for developing an
effective assessment plan.
In the ever-changing business environment, we as a company must always be ready to change in
return. Change can only come from within. We only need to look at the changes made by IBM
and Southwest Airlines to understand this. In the 1990’s IBM had its lowest stock price since
1983 and over 60,000 jobs were lost (Harreld, O'Reilly III, Tushman, 2007, P.21). When IBM
appointed Lou Gerstner as CEO in 1993, he was determined to turn things around for the
company. During his investigation 1n 1999, he read IBM’s strategy process and was furious. He
learned that throughout the 90’s, their company had staff pump out strategic plans that were only
written to appease management instead of an accurate plan for change that the company sorely
needed (Harreld, O'Reilly III, Tushman, 2007, P.27).

Southwest Airlines is a case in which changes made to its culture benefited its
image and strengthened its business model.
When Southwest started in 1971, it was
entering into a very competitive market. The
largest of Southwest’s competitors,
Continental Airlines, entered into a legal battle
with Southwest in an attempt to push
Southwest out of the market (O'Reilly, 1995, P.2).
With Southwest’s scope greatly reduced, its
CEO, Herb Kelleher, strove to make the
company successful by any means. He reinforced an underdog culture within the
company to encourage staff to pursue providing excellent service (O'Reilly, 1995,
P.2).
As members of Blue Sky, we must all strive to notice changes that must be made in
order for our company’s performance and reputation to succeed in such a
competitive market. To better facilitate such change, adopting an assessment plan
can greatly improve our ability to determine the areas in which such change is
needed. Upon researching the various organizational assessment models, I have
determined that Blue Sky should implement the Baldridge Performance Excellence
Program.

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Why the Baldridge Performance Excellence Program?

I have selected the Baldridge

Performance Excellence Program for its
focus on the categories of: leadership,
strategic planning, customer focus,
measurement analysis and knowledge
management, workforce focus,
operations focus, and results (Baldridge,
2012 ,P.1). These categories are ones in
which our company would have the
greatest interest in maintaining. Another
factor that makes the BPEP Assessment
more appealing is that every category is
outlined and given a point value totaling
to 1,000. This allows organizations using
the BPEP framework to self-assess where
they stand before even submitting an application for an assessment. The Baldridge
framework has been tried and tested. According to the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, “Between 2010 and 2121 award applicants represent 687,115 jobs. 124
Baldridge award winners serve as national role models. Baldridge-based programs
annually evaluate and recognize more than 1,000 organizations” (NIST, 2021).

The BPEP Assessment seeks to develop an organization profile to “set the context
for the way your organization operates” (Baldridge, 2012, P.1). The six categories
are featured in the center with the two highest scoring categories of leadership and
results highlighted. They are all supported by the organization’s core values and

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concepts. Developing a more structured
breakdown of where each of the
organization’s categories stand will allow us
to determine in which areas need the most
improvement.
In utilizing the Baldridge framework, our
company will have a better understanding of
how all of our components work together
which will allow us to focus on the core
value of our company, “delivering a quality
product for pilots by pilots.”

Works Cited
Harreld, B, O'Reilly III, C, Tushman, M. (2007). Dynamic Capabilities at IBM: Driving Strategy
Into Action. California Review Management.

Lusthaus, C. (2002). Organizational Assessment: A Framework for Improving Performance.

International Development Research Centre.

NIST. (2021). Baldridge Performance Excellence Program. National Institute of Standards and
Technology. https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/how-baldrige-works/about-baldrige/baldrige-
impacts

O'Reilly, C. A. (1995). Southwest Airlines (A). Stanford Graduate School of Business.