Achieving sustainable excellence: A theoretical comparison of established quality awards

Abstract

This research scrutinizes and synthesizes three well-known quality awards in the world including the Baldrige Award, Deming Prize, and European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Award with a longitudinal examination. The study generates insights for improving the award frameworks and producing a greater impact on sustainable excellence for organizations. The evolution of the frameworks spanning about the past decade exemplifies quality as the core competency of organizations globally and its solid role in supporting sustainable excellence. While differences exist among the three award frameworks, a trending convergence was observed in their evolution toward sustainability and the inclusion of agility and stakeholders. For organizations, there is the potential to view the awards as complementary, especially for organizations with a global footprint. For the administration bodies of the three awards, learning opportunities emerge from the comparison provided because revisions were suggested that would encourage organizations to sustain the benefits of winning the awards. Adopting the structure of the Deming Grand Prize would allow the Baldrige Award and EFQM Award to establish a mechanism to reevaluate the winners for their continuous and ongoing improvements. This reevaluation would encourage maximizing and sustaining the benefits of the quality initiatives.

Keywords:

• Agility
• baldrige
• Deming prize
• EFQM
• excellence framework quality awards
• quality management
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ying Cao

Ying Cao is an Assistant Professor of Project and Supply Chain Management in the Black School of Business at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. She received her Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research articles have been published in journals including the International Journal of Production Economics and the Journal of Cleaner Production., Quality Management Journal, and Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. Her research focuses on sustainable supply chain management, retail operations, and inventory management.

Xianghui Peng

Xianghui Peng is an Associate Professor of Project and Supply Chain Management in the Black School of Business at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. His research articles have been published in journals including Computers and Industrial Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Industrial Management & Data Systems, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Operations Management Research, Quality Management Journal, and Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. His research focuses on agile project management, quality management, sustainable supply chain management, and healthcare operations.

Victor Prybutok

Victor R. Prybutok is a Regents Professor of Decision Sciences in the G. Brint Ryan College of Business, Vice Provost for Graduate Education, and Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School at the University of North Texas. He received his bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and a doctorate from Drexel University. Prybutok is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Quality Auditor (CQA), Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), and an accredited professional statistician (PSTAT) by the American Statistical Association. Prybutok has authored 250 journal articles, several book chapters, and more than 300 conference presentations in information systems measurement, quality control, risk assessment, and applied statistics.