5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Aligning Baldridge and AACSB Criteria to
Enhance Education Andres Fortino
Associate Dean
George Mason University
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Session Mission
George Mason University's School of Management is in the process of aligning the Baldrige criteria to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) criteria and undertaking efforts to measure and optimize its organizational performance.
This session will describe the process that was created and the preliminary data and results from its application.
Anyone interested in using Baldrige as the platform for performance tracking and continuous improvement may benefit from attending this session
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Value Proposition
The Baldrige Quality Program may be used successfully to better manage the performance of educational organizations and their accreditation initiatives
Note that the purpose IS NOT pursuing the Baldrige award BUT:Manage the institution betterMaintain its accreditation
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
The Baldrige Initiative The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was created by
Public Law 100-107, signed into law on August 20, 1987
It was thought that a national quality award program the US would help improve quality and productivity by: helping to stimulate American companies to improve quality and
productivity … while obtaining a competitive edge recognizing the achievements of those companies that improve the quality
… and providing an example to others; establishing guidelines and criteria that can be used by business,
industrial, governmental, and other organizations in evaluating their own quality improvement efforts
providing specific guidance for other American organizations that wish to learn how to manage for high quality by making available detailed information on how winning organizations were able to change their cultures and achieve eminence
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
The Baldrige Award
Since 1988, 684 applications have been submitted for the Baldrige award from a wide variety of types and sizes of companies
From 1988-2002 51 organizations have received the award
Over 1,400 Baldrige examiners have been trained to analyze performance in organizations
Baldrige is seen in the United States and abroad as the standard for improving performance provides a clearly marked path toward excellence that any
organization
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Baldrige for Education The Criteria are the basis for
organizational self-assessments, making Awards, giving feedback to applicants.
In addition, the Criteria have three important roles: to help improve organizational performance practices, capabilities, and results to facilitate communication and sharing of best practices information among U.S.
organizations of all types to serve as a working tool for understanding and managing performance and for
guiding organizational planning and opportunities for learning Education Criteria for Performance Excellence Goals The Criteria are
designed to help organizations use an integrated approach to organizational performance management that results in delivery of ever-improving value to students and stakeholders, contributing to
education quality improvement of overall organizational effectiveness and capabilities organizational and personal learning
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
The Baldrige System
Seven broad categories make up the criteria: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management business results
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Baldrige Support System Elements
The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence provides a systems perspective for understanding performance
management http://baldrige.nist.gov/Education_Criteria.htm
Are We Making Progress? Survey designed to help you know if your perceptions agree with those of
your employees http://baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/Progress.pdf
Survey Results from 2002 Examiner Training Approximately 200 Examiners voluntarily filled out the “Are We
Making Progress?” survey during their May 2002 training sessions -- use it for benchmarking
http://baldrige.nist.gov/PDF_files/Examiner_Survey_Results.pdf
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
New Baldrige criteria for educational institutions
http://baldrige.nist.gov/Education_Criteria.htm
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Areas of performance monitoring and scoring system
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
The Accreditation Process
Educational institutions have accreditation responsibilities University level – e.g. SACS Professional/school level – e.g. ABET for engineering
or AACSB for business These are narrowly focused on dimension of
educational quality They are concerned with organizational
efficiency only peripherally
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
AACSB Accreditation
AACSB is the premier global accrediting body for business schools Based on the American business school Over 1500 business schools world-wide 454 are AACSB accredited Extensive criteria
http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/standards.asp Requires periodic peer review with visits New criteria coming out – continuous review
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Sample AACSB Standards
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Using Baldrige Use Baldrige as platform for managing the
educational process with quality and achieve high performance while fulfilling accreditation obligations Accreditation was a subset of Baldrige
Baldrige was a more robust platform than other performance management scoring systems – e.g. balanced scorecard Had survey instruments with benchmark data, used a
systems approach, was more comprehensive, matched accreditation
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
GMU School of Management
George Mason University is a large public state university in Northern Virginia 27,000 students, 3 campuses (Fairfax, Arl., PWC)
SOM is the business school 3500 undergraduates 400 graduate students in the MBA, EMBA, MSTM,
MSBM programs 80 faculty, 50 staff $12M per year budget
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
SOM as a Case Study
Why we implemented BaldrigeWanted a scoring system to check statusWanted a system for managing all aspects of
the schoolWanted to fulfill AACSB obligations –
including new continuous improvement requirement– without extra work
Wanted to improve the school!
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
How We Implemented Baldrige
Made commitment to use Baldrige for managing – conscious decision not to try for award
Sorted Baldrige extensive list of performance monitoring criteria into three categories: A-items those that matched AASCB criteria B-items Baldrige items needed for managing C-items the rest of Baldrige not to be implemented
Found that A and B-items made up only 50%
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
How We Implemented Baldrige
Matched AACSB items to Baldrige items Many AACSB and Baldrige items were the same or
similar—which gave us the impetus to implement Baldrige
Wanted to make sure all AACSB criteria were being monitored and considered
Have an obligation to monitor and improve educational performance
Created a map between the two to make sure no AACSB items were ignored
Assisted in documentation
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
P: Organizational Profile 1: Leadership 2: Strategic Planning
P.1 Organizat
ional Descriptio
n
P.2 Organizati
onal Challenge
s
1.1 Organizatio
nal Leadership
1.2 Social Responsi
bility
2.1 Strategy Development
2.2 Strategy Deployment
Strategic Management
Standards
1. Mission Statement X X X
2. Mission Appropriateness
X
3. Student Mission
4. Continuous Improvement Objectives
X X
5. Financial Strategies
Matching AACSB to Baldrige
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Documentation
We immediately started the documentation process
Many of these documents already existed Created an electronic collection point
Website indexed via AACSB and Baldrige Accessible to all managers The MIS system
Basis for managing the organization
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Performance Improvement
Started the performance improvement process Getting started survey “Are We Making Progress” survey Summarized and examined results in strategic
planning meetings and subsequent tactical senior staff meetings
Used survey results from 1400 Baldrige examiners as baseline data to compare
Resolve any problems using performance improvement techniques (e.g. Six Sigma)
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Surveyed Faculty and Staff
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Use of Survey
Repeat use of survey yearly Prepare for senior staff strategic planning
sessions Build base of baseline data
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Use Baldrige For Radical Improvements
Baldrige has extensive scoring criteria for each of the seven areas
Examine areas of particular concern in detail using gathered documentation
Use these criteria to go deeper into identifying problems
Solve problems using known performance improvement techniques (e.g. Six Sigma)
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Scoring guidelines for approach development criteria
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Scoring guidelines for results oriented criteria
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003
Summary
The Baldrige Quality Program may be used to manage an educational institution better
Some work is needed to align the extensive system to fit organizational characteristics
It may also be aligned with institution’s accreditation requirements