5th annual dod conference june 25-26, 2003

5th Annual DOD Conference June 25-26, 2003

Aligning Baldridge and AACSB Criteria to

Enhance Education Andres Fortino

Associate Dean

George Mason University


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


New Baldrige criteria for educational institutions

http://baldrige.nist.gov/Education_Criteria.htm


Areas of performance monitoring and scoring system


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


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


Sample AACSB Standards


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


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


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!


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%


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


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


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


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)


Surveyed Faculty and Staff


Use of Survey

Repeat use of survey yearly Prepare for senior staff strategic planning

sessions Build base of baseline data


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)


Scoring guidelines for approach development criteria


Scoring guidelines for results oriented criteria


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