Criteria for Performance Excellence

No matter the size or nature of your organization, the Criteria are a guide in your journey toward performance excellence. They can help your organization align resources; improve communication, productivity, and effectiveness; and achieve strategic goals.

The Criteria work as an integrated framework for managing an organization. They are simply a set of questions focusing on critical aspects of management that contribute to performance excellence:

• Leadership
  
• Strategic planning
• Customer focus
• Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management
• Workforce focus
• Operations focus
  
• Results
  
  

The Criteria serve two main purposes:

• Identify Baldrige Award recipients to serve as role models for other organizations
• Help organizations assess their improvement efforts, diagnose their overall performance management system, and identify their strengths and opportunities for improvement

There are three versions of the Criteria for Performance Excellence: business/nonprofit, education, and health care. If you are looking for more information about using the Baldrige Criteria, go to  Baldrige FAQs: Using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.

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