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Q: European Framework for Quality Management ( Answered 3 out of 5 stars,   0 Comments )
Question  
Subject: European Framework for Quality Management
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: teal-ga
List Price: $100.00
Posted: 04 Jun 2003 20:42 PDT
Expires: 04 Jul 2003 20:42 PDT
Question ID: 213239
I need to critically appraise the EFQM and its application within an
organisation - Can you help please?
Answer  
Subject: Re: European Framework for Quality Management
Answered By: easterangel-ga on 04 Jun 2003 22:54 PDT
Rated:3 out of 5 stars
 
Hi! Thanks for an interesting question.

In order to critically analyze the EFQM model and its applications
within organizations, let us first find out what it is and then find
the elements that play a major role in organizations.

Let us go to the source itself the EFQM website to find important
insights on what an EFQM model is and why is it important.

“The EFQM Excellence Model was introduced at the beginning of 1992 as
the framework for assessing applications for The European Quality
Award. It is the most widely used organisational framework in Europe
and has become the basis for the majority of national and regional
Quality Awards.”

“Whilst Quality Awards are a focus for some users, the true measure of
the EFQM Excellence Model's effectiveness is its widespread use as a
management system and the associated growth in the key management
discipline of organisational self-assessment.”

“Regardless of sector, size, structure or maturity, to be successful,
organisations need to establish an appropriate management system. The
EFQM Excellence Model is a practical tool to help organisations do
this by measuring where they are on the path to Excellence; helping
them understand the gaps; and then stimulating solutions.”

“EFQM EXCELLENCE MODEL”
http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/excellence_model.htm 

The EFQM model is an important tool for an organization’s success
since it provides a structure by which one can follow to achieve
success. The model mentions two critical areas in an organization that
must be addressed.

A. The Enablers – The people behind the organization and the policies
and environment they work in.

B. The Results – This aspect covers the achievements made by the
organization as a result of the actions by the enablers.

The Enablers consist of the following elements. I will provide short
descriptions here but you must read the pages in their entirety so as
to get a better appreciation of the subject matter.

1. Leadership – “Excellent Leaders develop and facilitate the
achievement of the mission and vision. They develop organisational
values and systems required for sustainable success and implement
these via their actions and behaviours.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion1.htm 

2. People – “Excellent organisations manage, develop and release the
full potential of their people at an individual, team-based and
organisational level. They promote fairness and equality and involve
and empower their people.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion3.htm 

3. Policies and Strategies – “Excellent Organisations implement their
mission and vision by developing a stakeholder focused strategy that
takes account of the market and sector in which it operates. Policies,
plans, objectives, and processes are developed and deployed to deliver
the strategy.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion2.htm 
  
4. Partnerships – “Excellent organisations plan and manage external
partnerships, suppliers and internal resources in order to support
policy and strategy and the effective operation of processes.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion4.htm 

5. Processes – “Excellent organisation's design, manage and improve
processes in order to fully satisfy, and generate increasing value
for, customers and other stakeholders.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion5.htm 

Our discussion now moves on to the elements of the Results criteria

1. People Result – “Excellent organisations comprehensively measure
and achieve outstanding results with respect to their people.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion7.htm 

2. Customer Results – “Excellence organisations comprehensively
measure and achieve outstanding results with respect to their
customers.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion6.htm 

3. Society Results – “Excellent organisations comprehensively measure
and achieve outstanding results with respect to society.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion8.htm 

4. Key Performance Results – “The measures are key results defined by
the organisation and agreed in their policy and strategies.”

http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/DefinitionCriterion9.htm 

Our next article provides a much more deeper discussion on how to
implement and apply EFQM to a particular organization. Again I will
cite some snippets from the article but a reading of the entire
document is a must here since there are lots of in-depth ideas that
could be absorbed here.

“The Model is based on the premise that results (customer
satisfaction, employee satisfaction, impact on society, financial and
other key performance results) are achieved by people following
well-defined processes, managing resources wisely, to achieve the
organisation's strategy, guided by the organisation's leadership. By
1995, almost 60% of European organisations using self-assessment were
using the EFQM model as the basis against which to assess their
performance and identify gaps (Hakes1996).”

A. EQFM Approach in your Organization:

“An organisation looking to improve its self-assessment score will not
necessarily achieve this by implementing ‘best practices’ from other
organisations. The approach must be integrated and well deployed.”

B. Organizational Deployment

“To assess deployment from a document prior to a site visit can be
difficult. The assessor needs to decide which areas it would expect to
see the approach deployed in, and then what evidence there is that the
approach is deployed in these areas.”

C. Assessment and Review

“Measurements should be relevant to the organisation, chosen either
because it will help track progress towards a goal, or focus on an
area for improvement or for some organisational purpose – not just for
the sake of measurement.”   approaches.”

D. Good Practices

“An example may help to show how an organisation might implement good
practices. If the employee survey shows that employees are not aware
of the organisation’s strategy and markets, the organisation might
consider introducing some form of regular update. Before doing so, it
might carry out some focus group research with its employees to find
out what sort of information they want to receive and what is the
preferred medium e.g. print, electronic, face to face.”

“Guidelines for assessing organisational performance against the EFQM
Model of Excellence using the Radar Logic”
http://info.sm.umist.ac.uk/wp/abstract/wp0203.htm 

Our next link provides an overview of the evaluation tools used for
EFQM

“Evaluation tools”
http://www.efqm.org/model_awards/model/evaluation_tools.htm 

If you need a short guide or summary from the complexity of EFQM,
these articles will come in handy.

“The EFQM Excellence Model”
http://www.topsproject.org/public/model.htm 

“What is the EFQM Model”
 http://www.mecservices.co.uk/What_We_Do-EFQM.htm 

“EFQM Excellence Model”
http://www.case-jc.demon.co.uk/bem.htm 

Our last two links will consists of case studies of using EFQM.

Summary 1: “The before mentioned interpretations of the model for
higher education institutions show that the self-assessment approach
is not restricted to a particular target group but can be applied to
any kind of organization. It serves as an open model to control
organization development. A major advantage is that the employees get
involved into the improvement process. Therefore the measures
undertaken are widely accepted. By employing the self-assessment
approach, higher education institutions can direct and control their
improvement process and thus cope with the topical challenges in this
sector.”

“THE NEW EFQM EXCELLENCE MODEL AND ITS IMPACT ON HIGHER EDUCATION
INSTITUTIONS”
http://www.blweb.it/esoe/tqmhe2/20.PDF 

Summary 2: “Knowledge implications applied to the Excellence model are
applicable to all types of organizations. Some fundamentals are
addressed in the document, some will be inherent in current practices
while others will be new. Simple messages that could be emphasized are
that cultural and process issues are critical for KM success.
Implementing an Intranet, although important in itself, is not
sufficient. Often cries are heard, “My intranet does not get used!”
Why? Because it was not developed in the context of business
objectives or staff needs. Most likely, it does not address the way
people work and/or the processes that should be implemented to support
the Intranet. This may be a simplistic conclusion and the reasons for
failure are probably far more complex, but the point being any
implementation MUST address people, processes and technology NOT in
isolation to each other but holistic.”

“EFQM Excellence Model and Knowledge Management Implications”
by Dilip Bhatt
http://www.beracon.de/EFQM.pdf 

Search terms used:    
EFQM model benefits organization evaluation tools
                   
I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
                   
Thanks for visiting us.                    
                   
Regards,                    
Easterangel-ga                    
Google Answers Researcher
teal-ga rated this answer:3 out of 5 stars

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