P Organizational Profile 3

Education Criteria for Performance Excellence

Begin with the Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile is the most appropriate starting point for self-assessment and for writing an application. It is 

critically important for the following reasons: 

• You can use it as an initial self-assessment. If you identify topics for which conflicting, little, or no information is 

available, use these topics for action planning.

• It sets the context for understanding your organization and how it operates, and allows you to address unique aspects 

of your organization in your responses to the Education Criteria questions in categories 1–7. Your responses to all 

other questions in the Criteria should relate to the organizational context you describe in this profile.

• It helps you identify gaps in key information about your organization and focus on key performance requirements 

and results. 

• The Organizational Profile is an invaluable tool for new and seasoned employees to fully understand your 

organization.

P Organizational Profile

The Organizational Profile is a snapshot of your organization and its strategic environment.

P.1 Organizational Description: What are your key organizational characteristics?

a. Organizational Environment

(1) Educational Program and Service Offerings What are your main educational program and servi

offerings? What is the relative importance (including percentage of revenue/budget) of each to your success? 

What modalities do you use to deliver your educational programs and services?

(2) Mission, Vision, Values, and Culture What are your mission, vision, and values? What are the

characteristics of your organizational culture? What are your organization’s core competencies, and what is 

their relationship to your mission and vision?

(3) Workforce Profile What is your workforce profile? What are your workforce or faculty and staff groups

and segments and the key engagement drivers for each? What key changes are you experiencing in your 

workforce capability, capacity, and composition?

(4) Assets What are your major assets, such as facilities, equipment, technologies, and intellectual property?

(5) Regulatory Environment What are your key applicable standards and regulations, and accreditation, certification, or registration requirements? 

b. Organizational Relationships

(1) Organizational Structure What are your organizational leadership and governance structures? What are the 

key components of your organization’s leadership system? What are the reporting relationships among your 

governance system, senior leaders, and parent organization, as appropriate?

(2) Students, Other Customers, and Stakeholders What are your key market segments, student and

customer groups, and stakeholder groups, as appropriate? What are their key requirements and expectations 

for your educational programs and services, student and other customer support services, and operations, 

including any differences among the groups?

(3) Suppliers, Partners, and Collaborators What are your key types of suppliers, partners, 

collaborators? What role do they play in producing and delivering your key educational programs

and services and your student and other customer support services? What role do they play in contributing 

and implementing innovations in your organization? What are your key supply-network requirements? 

Terms in small caps are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms (pages 48–56).
4 2023–2024 Baldrige Excellence Framework

Notes

P.1a(1). Modalities for delivering programs and services 

to your students might be direct or indirect, or through 

partners and collaborators.

P.1a(2). Your values are part of your organization’s culture. 

Other characteristics of your culture include shared beliefs, 

norms, and values that contribute to the uniqueness of the 

environment within your organization.

P.1a(2). If your organization has a stated purpose as well 

as a mission, you should include it in your response here 

and as appropriate in the process categories. Some organizations define a mission and a purpose, and some use the 

terms interchangeably. Purpose refers to the fundamental 

reason that the organization exists. 

P.1a(3). As applicable, your workforce profile should 

include the location of your workforce, your organized 

bargaining units (i.e., union representation), and the special 

health and safety requirements of the workforce. Your 

workforce profile should specify any workforce groups the 

organization has identified for segmenting data. Organizations that also rely on volunteers and/or temporary staff 

members to accomplish core work (producing output that 

is necessary and/or student-facing) should include these 

groups as part of their workforce. Workforce or faculty/

staff groups and segments might be based on type of 

employment or contract-reporting relationship, location 

(including remote work), work shift, work environment, 

use of flexible work policies, teaching vs. nonteaching role, 

student worker, or other factors. Current and anticipated 

changes impacting your workforce members might relate 

to scheduling, location, and their requirements and 

expectations. 

P.1a(5). Regulations and requirements include any applicable occupational health and safety regulations; education 

standards; and environmental, financial, and product 

regulations. Education standards might include local, state, 

federal, or international statutory requirements, regulations, and/or sector-wide codes of conduct and policy guidance, including compliance with research ethics. Depending 

on the regions in which you operate, environmental 

regulations might cover greenhouse gas emissions, carbon 

regulations and trading, and energy efficiency. 

P.1b(1). The Organizational Profile asks for the what of 

your leadership system. Questions in categories 1 and 5 

ask how the system functions.

P.1b(2). Student and other customer groups might be based 

on common requirements and expectations, behaviors, 

preferences, or profiles. Within a group, there may be segments based on differences, commonalities, or both. You 

might subdivide your market segments or customer groups 

based on educational programs, services, or features; 

delivery modalities; geography; or other defining factors.

P.1b(2). Student, other customer, stakeholder, and 

operational requirements and expectations will drive your 

organization’s sensitivity to the risk of program, service, 

support, and supply-network interruptions, including those 

due to natural disasters and other emergencies.

P.1b(3). Suppliers and partners may include, as appropriate, key feeder schools, organizations that supply 

curriculum or technology, transfer partner institutions 

that prepare students for your organization, and/or other 

businesses/industries that might be working with you 

to develop an education program specifically for their 

employees.

P.1b(3). Your supply network consists of the external entities involved in producing and delivering your programs 

and services to your students and offering follow-up, as 

appropriate. For some organizations, these entities form 

a chain, in which one entity directly supplies another. 

Increasingly, however, these entities are interlinked and 

exist in interdependent rather than linear relationships. The 

Education Criteria use the term supply network to emphasize the interdependencies among organizations and their 

suppliers. The term supply network represents an evolution 

and maturity in supply-chain management.

For additional guidance on this item, see the Education 

Criteria Commentary.
P Organizational Profile 5

P.2 Organizational Situation: What is your organization’s strategic situation?

a. Competitive Environment

(1) Competitive Position What are your size, share, and growth in your education sector or the markets you serve? 

How many and what types of competitors do you have? What differentiates you from them? 

(2) Competitiveness Changes What key changes, if any, are affecting your competitive situation, including 

changes that create opportunities for collaboration and innovation, as appropriate? 

(3) Comparative Data What key sources of comparative and competitive data are available from within the 

education sector? What key sources of comparative data are available from outside the education sector? What 

limitations, if any, affect your ability to obtain or use these data?

b. Strategic Context

What are your key strategic challenges, threats, advantages, and opportunities?

c. Performance Improvement Sy

What is your overall system for performance improvement? What key tools and methods are used as part of this 

system? 

Terms in small caps are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms (pages 48–56).

Notes

P.2a. Education organizations are frequently in highly 

competitive environments. Aside from direct competition 

for students, they must often compete to secure financial, 

volunteer, and human resources (e.g., education organizations may compete with noneducation organizations 

where pay might be higher to recruit and retain faculty 

and staff). This competition may involve other education 

organizations, such as for appropriations, grant funding 

or suppliers, or the opportunity to provide supplemental 

services. For public education organizations, competition 

may involve other public agencies or departments, as in the 

competition for scarce budget resources.

P.2b. Strategic challenges, threats, advantages, and opportunities might be in the areas of educational programs and 

services, operations, societal contributions, and workforce. 

They might relate to finances, including funding mechanisms; organizational structure and culture; political influences; emerging technology; digital integration; security 

and cybersecurity; emerging competitors; organizational 

resilience and risk management; changing stakeholder 

requirements and expectations; faculty and staff capability 

or capacity; brand recognition and reputation; diversity, 

equity, and inclusion; and the upgrade and maintenance of 

facilities. 

P.2c. Excellence is not possible without robust evaluation 

and improvement of key processes, systems, and organizational results. The Baldrige Scoring System (pages 30–36) 

uses performance improvement through learning and 

integration as a factor in assessing the maturity of organizational approaches and their deployment. This question 

is intended to set an overall context for your approach to 

performance improvement. The system you use should be 

related to your organization’s needs and compatible with 

your organization’s capabilities, capacity, and culture. Specific tools and methods that might be utilized as part of the 

system include, for example, PDCA or PDSA methodology; 

completion of accreditation and certification requirements; nationally validated systems to improve teaching 

performance; and independent institutional, departmental, 

or program assessments.

For additional guidance on this item, see the Education 

Criteria Commentary.