Managing Quality, 6th Edition

Chapter Twelve Self-Assessment, Models and Quality Awards

B. G. Dale, J. Bamford, D. Bamford and A. van der Wiele

Introduction

If a process of continuous improvement is to be sustained and its pace increased it is essential that organizations monitor on a regular basis what activities are going well, which have stagnated, what needs to be improved and what is missing. Self-assessment provides the framework for generating this type of feedback about an organization's approach to continuous improvement. Self-assessment against the criteria of a quality award/excellence model on which evaluation and diagnostics can be based is now being given a considerable amount of attention by organizations throughout the world. The criteria of these awards encapsulate a comprehensive and holistic management model covering its various activities, practices and processes, and provide the mechanism for quantifying an organization's current state of TQM development by means of a points score. There are many definitions of self-assessment provided by writers such as Conti (1993, 1997) and Hillman (1994), but an all-embracing definition is provided by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) (2015):

Self-assessment is a comprehensive, systematic and regular review of an organization's activities and results referenced against the EFQM excellence model. The self-assessment process allows the organization to discern clearly its strengths and areas in which improvements can be made and ...