Leadership Evaluation

Effectiveness of the Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Leadership Evaluation
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Effectiveness of the Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Leadership Evaluation
The Baldrige National Quality Award leadership criteria focus on the ability of organizational leaders to facilitate and promote sustainable growth and development. In addition, it appraises business and management practices adopted by an organization. The criteria place particular emphasis on an organization’s ethical, social, and legal values as well as the management’s relationship with stakeholders. These criteria are used to recognize and award organization that promote good governance and sound business practices. This essay discusses the effectiveness of the Baldrige National Quality Awards Criteria in leadership evaluation.
In 2008, the Iredell-Statesville Schools were the winners of the Baldrige award in the education category. The winners were selected on the basis of their organizational performance and achievement vis-à-vis their adherence to legal, ethical, and social values. At the core of the Baldrige criteria, is the recognition that effective leadership is essential for organizational success. The kind of leadership that organizations adopt determines how well they achieve their short term and long term goals. Accordingly, the Baldrige criteria provide an effective framework of assessing the positive influence of an organization’s leadership (Roussel, Swansburg & Swansburg, 2006). Significant consideration is focused on an organization’s senior leadership because it forms the managerial driving force responsible for mobilizing resources and enforcing the organization’s core values. Additionally, it is the senior leadership that directs the organization’s collective human resources towards the realization of organizational goals, vision, and mission. At the same time, leaders facilitate and promote team work among staff members. They formulate the policies that guide institutional practices as well as establish the desired organizational culture, whilst ensuring a work ethic that conforms to established legal frameworks.
The Baldrige criterion reflects the core values that promote organizational success, hence provides an effective framework for leadership evaluation. Of significant relevance is the emphasis on an organization’s vision, which not only forms the foundational basis from which all other organizational values derive, but also projects the organization’s long term and future goals. A strong vision is the platform of organizational success, without which failure is inevitable (Glasman, 1986). In this light, the Baldrige criteria can be successfully applied to a two-year since it takes into account an organization’s vision and long term goals. Indeed, an organization’s values are a permanent fixture in organizational practices because they determine and influence leadership strate...