From Strategy to Results: Understanding, Evaluating, and Improving the Organization through Self-Assessment

Abstract

This session explores a six-phase organizational learning process starting with the organization’s strategy and ending with the benefits of improved organizational performance.  This step-by-step walk through of the six major phases of organizational learning through self-assessment includes: organization vision and strategy; assessment planning and preparation; data collection, analysis, and reporting; evaluation and feedback; improvement planning and actions; and the results or benefits.  The focus of the session is on the steps and activities to plan, conduct, and evaluate a self-assessment using non-prescriptive (Baldrige and Baldrige-based) criteria.

Self-assessment is a relatively new organizational improvement tool.  According to A. Blanton Godfrey, Chairman and CEO of the Juran Institute, “there is no doubt that it is becoming a widely used tool in the United States by senior managers of leading companies.  But what do these assessments consist of?  How closely do they follow the MBNQA or other criteria?  What modifications do companies make when training their own examiners?  Should examiners be from within the business unit or from outside it?  What is the role of external examiners?  What added value do they bring that is not available within the company?” (Godfrey, October 1993, p. 60).

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Latham, J. R., "From Strategy to Results: Understanding, Evaluating, and Improving the Organization through Self-Assessment," 4th Annual Hawaii Conference on Quality - Leading the High Performance Organization, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, October 1996. 193 - 206.