1

The Metrology of Organizational Performance: 

How Baldrige Standards Have Become the Common Language for 

Organizational Excellence Around the World 

By Baldrige Performance Excellence Program 

July 2015 
2

The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence are accepted around the world as the gold standard for 

organizational performance excellence—a body of principles and considerations that when used as a management 

framework lead to improved performance results in organizations, from less defects, better health care outcomes, 

and improved effectiveness; to more satisfied and engaged customers, patients, and students; to improved financial 

and market share results. But how can the same set of standards be used in a global economy in various industries, 

for both small and large organizations, and still have the same impact on management and sustainability? And how 

can these standards contribute to organizational success not only in the United States but around the world? 

Utilizing a systems perspective, the Baldrige Criteria have been used as a global standard for organizational 

success because the leadership practices within have been validated by more than 27 years of practice, expert 

review, and research. The Baldrige Criteria use an approach that makes them adaptable for manufacturers; 

businesses; and health care, education, and nonprofit organizations around the world; this approach allows 

organizations to use the Criteria requirements as a common language within their organizations, a language that 

becomes the considerations to guide them to excellence. This paper will make clear how following the standards 

within the Baldrige Criteria has impacted the strength of the global economy. 

 
3

The Development of the Baldrige Excellence Framework and Its Criteria 

In 1987, the Deputy Director of the National Measurement Laboratory of the U.S. National Bureau of 

Standards (NBS) Curt Reimann was tasked by President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Congress, and the director of NBS 

to create a set of criteria (i.e., standards) to help U.S. manufacturers compete in a global economy. The idea for the 

standards—with an associated quality award to recognize and encourage sharing by organizations who exemplify 

them—was said to have the support of then U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige. 

Although there had been a great deal of dialogue in the United States about the need to prioritize the 

competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers, the country was slow to act on the creation of standards for organizational 

excellence—until the untimely death of Secretary Baldrige. Three days after his death, the Senate Committee on 

Commerce, Science, and Transportation passed legislation for a national quality award and standards for that award 

in his honor. On August 20, 1987, President Reagan signed the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement 

Act of 1987 into law.1

 

The law required “guidelines and criteria that can be used by business, 

industrial, governmental, and other organizations in evaluating their own quality 

improvement efforts; and . . . 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.” 2 Reimann began developing those “guidelines and criteria,” starting with a 

framework, now called the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Reimann 

said that the Baldrige Criteria were expected to be in a “state of evolution. . . . We 

aggressively pursued improvement of the Criteria from the start.”3

The development of the Baldrige Criteria has always been a collaborative one. 

Prior to annual or biannual publication, the standards or requirements within the Criteria are shared widely with 

quality experts, business executives, academics, health care experts, government experts, and many others to ensure 

that they always reflect the “leading edge of validated management practice”4

—a term first coined by Arnold 

Weimerskirch, vice president of quality for Honeywell. In addition to an expert review, the Criteria are reviewed by 

Baldrige overseers, who provide advisory guidance to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program that now 

develops the Criteria. The Criteria are also reviewed by Baldrige judges and examiners, who serve as volunteer 

Figure 1 Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Improvement Act of 1987
4

assessors and use the Criteria standards to recommend role-model companies to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to 

receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (Baldrige Award), the United States’ only Presidential honor 

for organizational performance excellence. Baldrige overseers, judges, and examiners have included distinguished 

experts such as Joseph Juran and Elmer Staats, the former Comptroller General of the United States who is known 

for his work at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. 

In November 1991, David Garvin wrote in the Harvard Business Review, 

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award has become the most important catalyst for transforming 

American business. More than any other initiative, public or private, it has reshaped managers’ thinking 

and behavior. The Baldrige Award not only codifies the principles of quality management in clear and 

accessible language. It also goes further: it provides companies with a comprehensive framework for 

assessing their progress toward the new paradigm of management and such commonly acknowledged goals 

as customer satisfaction and increased employee involvement. 

Over time, to ensure excellence within their companies, many U.S. organizations have developed internal 

quality awards and recognition based on the Baldrige Criteria; these included Johnson & Johnson’s Chairman’s 

Award, IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Award, and McDonald’s Sweeney Quality Award. Many other organizations, 

including Cargill, Eaton, and the Ritz-Carlton, have embedded or internalized the Baldrige Criteria, sometimes 

creating an entire evaluation process for their global operations. 

In 1993, based on growing interest from the business community and several national organizations, 

including the American Hospital Association, health care and education experts came to NBS, now called the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to implement the Baldrige Criteria concepts in the health 

care and education sectors.5

 The Baldrige Criteria were distributed to health care and education organizations to 

review, and pilots were conducted in 1995. 

“We had two challenges in implementing the health care and education categories,” said Baldrige Director 

emeritus Harry Hertz. “The simpler one was writing the Criteria that were specific to these sectors. Much more 

difficult was writing case studies that would reflect leading-edge strategies responsive to the Criteria but still 

believable in these sectors. The Criteria were proposing concepts that were still far beyond the current state of 
5

practice in those sectors. Fortunately, we had help and guidance from outstanding education and health care experts 

who volunteered their talents to the Baldrige Program and stretching current practice.” 

The Baldrige Program has much evidence of the return on investment for organizations that use the 

requirements or standards in the Criteria as a management framework. For example, analysis of data from two-time 

Baldrige Award winners shows that their median growth in number of sites was 67%, median growth in revenue was 

94%, and median growth in jobs was 63%; the median growth in jobs was nearly 20 times greater than matched 

industries and time periods, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 

which indicated a comparative average job growth of 3.2%6

. Hospitals that have won the Baldrige Award have 

lower rates of mortality and complications, higher profit margins, and higher improvement levels than the 100 Top 

Hospitals (top 3% nationwide) according to a Thomson Reuters study7

. And, in 2011, economists reported that for 

every public $1 spent on the Baldrige Program, the benefit to the U.S. economy was $8208

. 

Additional return on investment data are available on the Baldrige Web site9

 and in the book Baldrige 

20/20: An Executive’s Guide to the Criteria for Performance Excellence10, in which Rosabeth Moss Kanter, director 

of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, wrote, 

Use of the Baldrige Criteria can help organizations assess and improve their performance, becoming more 

sophisticated about how to align all of their processes to achieve desired results. That is important not only 

to the success of manufacturing and service enterprises but also sectors such as health care and education 

which are vital to the future of the economy and the well-being of society. The Baldrige Award is given to 

only a few of the applicants because they meet the highest standards. But in a sense, every organization that 

uses the Baldrige Criteria for self-study and change can turn out to be a winner due to their increased ability 

to learn, adapt, innovate, and achieve excellence. 

In the same book, Gregory Page, former chairman of the board and CEO of Cargill, Inc., writes that 

Baldrige Award recipients “are successfully navigating the storms of change, achieving operational effectiveness 

and efficiency, improving financial results, enhancing customer service, and winning new markets through 

application of the Baldrige Criteria.” 

The Baldrige Criteria remain a powerful standard for manufacturers. According to Woodbury University 

President Luis Calingo, “For manufacturers, Baldrige sends customers the message that you have achieved external 
6

recognition that is even more powerful than ISO 9000 certification, or ISO 9000 registration or even ISO 14000 

registration. Baldrige confirms that you have a good management system in place, but it also signals that your 

processes compare with those of world-class organizations. . . . The Baldrige Award provides the discipline and the 

scorecard companies today need to be accountable to their customers, employees, and shareholders.”11 In addition, 

an analysis of Baldrige Award winners found that each of five manufacturing companies studied experienced 

remarkable financial growth in the few years leading up to the award and in the years after winning the award; 

“Clearly, these five companies have provided a roadmap or a blueprint for other companies to follow,” wrote the 

study’s authors.12 

The Baldrige Criteria have proven to be the 

standard for global excellence, too. For Cargill, Inc., 

a global producer of food, agriculture, and financial 

and industrial products, the Baldrige Criteria have 

proven to be “a huge return on investment.” 13

Cargill uses the Baldrige Criteria for internal 

measurement of performance excellence across its 

business units; units with a high degree of 

deployment of the Baldrige Criteria have achieved 

30% cumulative earnings after taxes vs. budget vs. 

13% for Cargill businesses with partial Baldrige 

deployment and -12% for Cargill businesses just 

beginning use of Baldrige. The Tata Group—today a 

large Indian conglomerate whose many well-known 

brands include Jaguar Land Rover, Taj Hotels, Tetley, and Eight O’Clock Coffee—transformed itself from a $4 

billion domestic company in 1991 to a $103 billion global enterprise by 2014 through adapting the Baldrige 

Criteria.14 In another example, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., has seen millions of dollars of cost savings; “the 

secret is [its] systems approach found in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.” 15 In fact, to develop a 

common language for performance excellence, the global broadcaster “Turnerizes” the Criteria language for internal 

use by changing the language to match “Turner’s language.” 

Figure 2 Increased Revenues for Tata Group After

Implementing the Baldrige Criteria
7

In health care, one author wrote in an online Six Sigma community, “One of the most highly prized awards 

is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award . . . envisioned as a standard of excellence that would help U.S. 

organizations achieve world-class quality. The award not only recognizes organizations for their achievements, but 

raises awareness that quality and performance excellence are important as a competitive edge. The Baldrige Criteria 

are now the standard for performance excellence—a framework of seven categories that any organization can use to 

improve overall performance.”16 In the city of Detroit, which has been hit especially hard by the recession, “The 

Baldrige quality standards, along with transparency about how the hospital performed, helped Henry Ford Health 

System [a Baldrige Award recipient] improve, using feedback to improve metrics and boost performance. . . . The 

health system saved about $10 million between 2008 and 2011 through its ‘No Harm Campaign,’ which reduced 

harmful patient events by more than 30 percent, preventable infections by 45 percent and cut the average length of 

stay by nearly two days.”17 In an article in the Journal of Healthcare Management, John R. Griffith analyzed the 

outcomes of Baldrige Award recipients in the health care sector and whether, through application of the Baldrige 

Criteria, they have become high-reliability organizations—those that seek zero defects in outcomes quality. 18 “The 

data show that the Baldrige approach is an effective method of generating above-average performance. Award 

recipients have made substantial strides in safety, reductions of infections, immunizations, and patient satisfaction,” 

writes Griffith; "The Baldrige model has documented successes in quality improvement and should be the standard 

of excellence in managing all [health care organizations]. . . . The Baldrige approaches to corporate culture, 

incentive payment, and strategy now have a substantial, positive body of documentation of success. They should be 

the standard of excellence.” 

Education organizations, too, have found a common language in the Baldrige Criteria. For example, at 

Baldrige Award-winning Pewaukee Schools, “Applying the Malcolm Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance 

Excellence for seven years prior to winning the award helped Pewaukee focus its energies on what continuous 

improvement means at all levels. . . . The long buildup to the Baldrige recognition provided a common language to 

those in Pewaukee. . . . The shared vocabulary helps Pewaukee focus on applying data within carefully structured 

systems to keep improving.”19 At a 2013 state forum, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, said, “For Missouri to compete 

in today's global economy, our students need to graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers. . 

. . With a proven record of improving performance and outcomes, the Baldrige Program is an important tool to help . 

. . deliver real results for our students and our economy.”20
8

The Standards, Core Values and Concepts, and Scoring Rubric of the Baldrige Criteria 

In the latest revision of the Baldrige 

Criteria for Performance Excellence, the 

standards were published under the umbrella 

name Baldrige Excellence Framework21 and 

include (1) the Core Values and Concepts that 

represent the embedded beliefs and behaviors 

found in high-performing organizations and (2) 

a scoring rubric that organizations can use to 

assess their performance. 

In the simplest terms, the Criteria have 

been defined as an “integrated management 

framework”—a tool for understanding and 

managing organizational performance. They 

are a set of questions that guide how to run 

any organization, no matter its sector or size. 

The Criteria are divided into process 

and results categories that represent all of the 

components of a performance management 

system: leadership; strategy; customers (or, in 

education and health care, students and 

patients, respectively); measurement, analysis, 

and knowledge management; workforce; 

operations; and results. They provide a 

systems perspective, meaning they look at 

alignment and integration across an organization. 

Figure 3 Baldrige Excellence Framework for Measuring and Improving

Organizational Performance

Figure 4 The Core Values and Concepts Found Within the Baldrige

Framework
9

The Criteria are used to assess an organization's performance, helping the organization identify its 

strengths, opportunities for improvement, and gaps/blind spots. An assessment against the Baldrige Criteria has 

three elements. (1) In the Organizational Profile, the organization describes what is important to it (its operating 

environment, key relationships, competitive environment, and strategic context). (2) In responses to categories 1–7, 

the organization tells how it is accomplishing what is important to it. (3) The scoring guidelines allow the 

organization to assess how well it is accomplishing what is important to it: the maturity of processes and their 

deployment, and the breadth and significance of the organization’s results. Responses to the Criteria questions serve 

as an application for the Baldrige Award and are used internally by organizations to self-assess their own 

performance. Individual categories or items of the Criteria can be used as focused study for personal or 

organizational learning, and many organizations seek leadership development training in the Criteria. 

Through the Baldrige Program, the Criteria facilitate the communication and sharing of best practices 

among organizations. Many accreditation systems (e.g., the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and 

Programs) and standards are based on the Criteria or being revised to better align with them (including ISO). 

Many associations model their performance excellence programs on Baldrige (e.g., the National Housing 

Quality Award and the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living), and many small 

business development centers, including the U.S. Small Business Administration, train businesses and their 

executives on Baldrige principles. 

The Criteria are used not only as an application for the Baldrige Award but as the way to run an 

organization—even being called “A Road Map for the Future” by Quality magazine.22 They offer something 

different than Lean Six Sigma, ISO, Magnet, and other methodologies and strategies; the Baldrige Criteria offer an 

organization-wide perspective that optimizes an entire system rather than just focuses on pockets of excellence. 

 
10

Using the Criteria as a Standard for Organizational Sustainability 

As a set of organizational standards, the Criteria spell out through a systematic approach how an 

organization can attain sustainability. The approach that Baldrige examiners and others use23 begins with identifying 

an organization’s key factors: attributes of an organization or its 

environment that influence the way the organization operates 

and the key challenges it faces. Because each organization will 

have unique key factors, an assessment using the seven Criteria 

categories will be unique to that organization, no matter its size, 

sector, or country of origin. The categories of the Criteria 

include all of the requirements that an organization must 

consider to excel in that area. An assessment using the Baldrige 

approach will help the organization identify its strengths and 

opportunities for improvement, as well as prioritize its areas 

where improvement is needed to attain sustainability. 

After an organization answers the Criteria 

requirements, the Baldrige approach24 is used to assess the 

organization’s operations using the evaluation factors approach, 

deployment, learning, and integration for process categories, 

and levels, trends, comparisons, and integration for results 

categories. A Baldrige examiner assessing an organization for the Baldrige Award looks for approaches that are 

systematic; systematic approaches are repeatable and use data and information to enable learning. In other words, 

approaches are systematic if they build in the opportunity for evaluation, improvement, innovation, and knowledge 

sharing, thereby enabling a gain in maturity. Approaches should also show deployment: how approaches are 

implemented in different parts of an organization. Evidence of evaluation and improvement cycles for processes, as 

well as the potential for innovation, is also part of the assessment. Finally, an organization needs to show that 

process improvements are shared with other appropriate units of an organization to enable organizational learning. 

The final evaluation factor for process items is integration: alignment and harmonization among processes, plans, 

measures, actions, and results. Such harmonization generates organizational effectiveness and efficiencies. 

Figure 5 Categories and Items of the Baldrige Criteria
11

Figure 6 High‐Level Example of How the Baldrige Approach Measures the Maturity of Organizational Approaches
12

The second part of the Baldrige approach is used to assess an organization’s results. Trends show the 

directions of results and rates of change in areas of importance; a minimum of three historical data points is 

generally needed to ascertain a trend. Trends represent historic and current performance and might span five or more 

years or less than one year, depending on what is meaningful. Comparisons show how results compare with those of 

other, appropriately selected organizations. Integration is shown by including all important results and segmenting 

them appropriately (e.g., by important customer, workforce, process, and product-line groups). 

The Wide-Ranging Impact of the Baldrige Framework on a Strong Global Economy 

In the U.S., more than 35 state, regional, and sector programs that support local businesses, hospitals, and 

schools base themselves on Baldrige25; around the world, more than 100 international programs use the Baldrige 

Criteria in their entirety, translated, benchmarked, or adapted as standards to measure organizational excellence. 

(These numbers do not include the thousands of organizations that use the Criteria as a management framework 

and/or to apply for the Baldrige Award.) Many of these countries also tie their performance excellence models to 

their governments in terms of recognition, funding, education, and certification. Examples include Singapore, 

Thailand26, and New Zealand, where the “The Gold award is the highest accolade the foundation can bestow to a 

business or organisation that is benchmarked against the Baldrige criteria, the only internationally calibrated, 

organisation-wide measure of business excellence.” 27 Other countries that translate and benchmark the Baldrige 

Criteria include Vietnam28, Sri Lanka, Iran, Australia29, the Ukraine, Japan30, China31, and South Africa,32 where the 

South African Excellence Foundation CEO Ed van den Heever said of the importance of the Baldrige Criteria to 

quality standards around the world, “The Baldrige Criteria largely dictated the selection and qualification of Criteria 

guidelines, key characteristics, and Criteria description. Globally, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program led 

the way in this area.” And according to Bill Voravuth Chengsupanimit, lead assessor of the Thailand Quality Award, 

It is our government’s wish to jumpstart and pursue performance excellence to enhance sustainability in all 

sectors through a common excellence framework with unified values. . . . We have testimonials from 

leading conglomerates and industry leaders in the country praising how the Baldrige framework 

transformed their organizations. We see results therefore we believe in Baldrige! . . . The Baldrige Program 
13

is simply the best, as it has a universal appeal. Tell me something that a capitalist, a socialist, and a 

communist can agree on. It’s Baldrige! For us here in Thailand, we truly believe Baldrige can align and 

integrate us all! 

The Baldrige Program also works closely with the Global Excellence Model (GEM) Council33 that includes 

the European Foundation for Quality Management, Japan Quality Award, Australian Organisational Excellence 

Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industry, Fundação Nacional da Qualidade (Brazil), Fundación Iberoamericana 

para la Gestión de la Calidad (Latin America), Instituto para el Fomento a la Calidad Total (Mexico), Malaysia 

Productivity Center, and SPRING Singapore. GEM meets annually to benchmark global excellence practices, 

including conducting CEO roundtables and discussing the latest global management trends. Of the Baldrige 

Program, the administrator of the Singapore excellence award, Choy Sauw Kook, wrote, “The Baldrige Program has 

provided us with a benchmark in terms of the development and enhancement of our framework, rigour of 

assessment methodology, assessor development and recognition, as well as best practice learnings. Within the 

[GEM] Council, the Baldrige Program is seen as the leading excellence progamme, and SPRING Singapore, like 

other GEM Council members, has always looked to Baldrige for the way forward.” 

Standards are the world’s common language, and in the realm of organizational performance excellence, 

and the measurement of organizational performance, there are no more impactful standards than the ones found in 

the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. These standards have become a common language for every type 

of organization, touching countries around the globe. They have contributed to the success of industries and 

subindustries within manufacturing, business, health care, education, and nonprofits. Through this success, they 

have helped hospitals save lives, educators to improve learning outcomes for children, and businesses to create jobs 

and be more efficient. In the celebration of the global importance of standards, the Baldrige Criteria rank as the gold 

standard for the measurement and recognition of performance excellence—in other words, the metrology of 

performance excellence—around the world. 
14

                                                            

1

 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, The Malcolm Baldrige 

National Quality Improvement Act of 1987, Public Law 100-107, 

http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/about/improvement_act.cfm. 

2

 Ibid. 

3

 Bell, Robert and Keys, Bernard, “A Conversation with Curt W. Reimann on the Background and Future of the 

Baldrige Award,” Organizational Dynamics, American Management Association, Spring 1998. 

4

 Hertz, Harry, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 

“Leading at the ‘Leading Edge of Validated Management Practice,’” Insights of the Road to Excellence, July 2010. 

5

 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Update, April 1993. 

6

 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “The Verdict Is In—

Baldrige Is About Revenue and Jobs—Part 2,” September 19, 2011, 

http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2011/09/19/the-verdict-is-in-baldrige-is-about-revenue-and-jobs-part-2/. 

7

 Shook, Julie, and Chenoweth, Jean, Truven Health Analytics, “100 Top Hospitals CEO Insights: Adoption Rates of 

Select Baldrige Award Practices and Processes,” October 2012, www.nist.gov/baldrige/upload/100-Top-Hosp-CEOInsights-RB-final.pdf. 

8

 Link, Albert N. and Scott, John T., “Economic Evaluation of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 

December 16, 2011, http://www.nist.gov/director/planning/upload/report11-2.pdf. 

9

 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 

http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/. 

10 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Baldrige 20/20: An 

Executive’s Guide to the Criteria for Performance Excellence, Gaithersburg, MD: 2011. 

11 Reinke, Jeff, “5 Quick Questions: More Powerful Than ISO 14000 For Plant Floor Management,” Manufacturing 

Business Technology, September 10, 2013, http://www.mbtmag.com/articles/2013/09/5-quick-questions-morepowerful-iso-14000-plant-floor-management.
15

                                                                                                                                                                                                12 Cazzell, Brian and Ulmer, Jeffrey M., “Measuring Excellence: A Closer Look at Malcolm Baldrige National 

Quality Award Winners in the Manufacturing Category, Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, 2009, 

http://www.jotmi.org/index.php/GT/article/view/470. 

13 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Baldrige ‘Is a Huge 

Return on Investment,’” http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/qe/roi.cfm. 

14 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “‘Making an 

Elephant Dance’: How the Baldrige Criteria Helped to Transform a Global Conglomerate,” September 5, 2014, 

http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/tata.cfm. 

15 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Plates Still Spin but 

Senior Leaders Find Peace of Mind,” January 8, 2013, http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/01/08/platesstill-spin-but-senior-leaders-find-peace-of-mind/. 

16 Pexton, Carolyn, “Awards Help Set Standards for Healthcare Excellence,”2010, 

http://www.isixsigma.com/community/awards-and-standards/awards-help-set-standards-healthcare-excellence/. 

17 Sullivan, Katie, “Baldrige Quality Standards, Investment in Detroit Help Henry Ford Health System to Top,” 

FierceHealthcare, June 30, 2014, http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/baldrige-quality-standards-investmentdetroit-helps-henry-ford-health-syste/2014-06-30.

18 Griffith, John R. “Understanding High-Reliability Organizations: Are Baldrige Recipients Models?” Journal of 

Healthcare Management, American College of Healthcare Executives, January/February, 2014.

19 Rosenberg, Merri, “Freedom Within Fences,” School Administrator, August 2014, 

www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=34306. 

20 Office of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, “At Governor's Conference on Baldrige in Education, Gov. Nixon 

Applauds Innovative School Improvement Efforts,” December 5, 2013, 

http://governor.mo.gov/news/archive/governors-conference-baldrige-education-gov-nixon-applauds-innovativeschool.
16

                                                                                                                                                                                                21 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2015–2016 Baldrige Excellence Framework: A Systems Approach to 

Improving Your Organization’s Performance. Gaithersburg, MD: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute 

of Standards and Technology. http://www.nist.gov/baldrige.

22 Smith, Jim, “A Roadmap for the Future,” Quality Magazine, June 2, 2014, 

http://www.qualitymag.com/articles/91903-a-road-map-for-the-future. 

23 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “2015 Step-by-Step 

Instructions for INDEPENDENT REVIEW Scorebook Preparation,” 

http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/examiners/resource_center/upload/2015-Step-by-Step-for-Independent-Review.pdf. 

24 2015–2016 Baldrige Excellence Framework: A Systems Approach to Improving Your Organization’s 

Performance.

25 The Alliance for Performance Excellence, http://www.baldrigepe.org/alliance/. 

26 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Look Who’s Using 

Baldrige: A Focus on Southeast Asia,” March 6, 2013, http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/03/06/lookwhos-using-baldrige-a-focus-on-southeast-asia/. 

27 The National Business Review, “Two Rare Golds Awarded In Country's Toughest Business Competition,” 

November 30, 2013, http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/two-rare-golds-awarded-country-toughest-business-competitionng-149421. 

28 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Vietnam News,” 

March 5, 2013, http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/03/05/vietnam-news/. 

29 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “The Global Business 

Value of the Baldrige Model,” December 19, 2013, http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/12/19/theglobal-business-value-of-the-baldrige-model/. 

30 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Validated Around 

the World,” July 6, 2010, http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2010/07/06/validated-around-the-world/. 

31 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “A Focus on Quality 

in China: A Baldrige Examiner Shares Insights,” November 25, 2014, 
17

                                                                                                                                                                                               

http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2014/11/25/a-focus-on-quality-in-china-a-baldrige-examiner-sharesinsights/. 

32 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “A New Model for 

Excellence in South Africa,” August 14, 2014, http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2014/08/14/a-new-modelfor-excellence-in-south-africa/. 

33 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “International Award 

Programs,” http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/community/international.cfm.