2003 Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria Challenge CEOs to Be
Chief Ethical Officers
Criteria Support Presidents Effort to Promote
Corporate Responsibility
Responsibility for corporate stewardship and ethical business practices
starts at the top with an organizations chief executive and
governing body, says the 2003 Baldrige Award performance excellence
criteria released today by the Commerce Departments National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
For America to have a strong economy, we need sound businesses
with ethical, responsible leaders, said Commerce Secretary Don
Evans. Great authority is vested in the men and women who run
our public corporations, and with such power comes responsibility.
Corporate leaders arent simply stewards of their individual
companies. They are stewards of American capitalism itself.
The Baldrige performance excellence criteria can help any organization
form the foundation for sound management and ethical business practices.
They long have stressed that senior leaders should be ethical role
models and that organizations have a responsibility to practice good
citizenship. But, this latest version clearly states that the responsibility
for legal and ethical behavior starts with the organizations
senior leaders and governing body.
Senior leaders should serve as role models through their ethical
behavior
, according to the 2003 criteria. In addition,
it states, Senior leaders should be responsible to your organizations
governance body for their actions and performance. The governance
body should be responsible ultimately to all your stakeholders for
the ethics, vision, actions, and performance of your organization
and its senior leaders.
This emphasis is woven throughout all of the Baldrige criterias
seven categories: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market
focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management,
and business results. But, it is most visible in the leadership category,
which asks how the organizations governance system ensures management
and fiscal accountability and independence in audits while protecting
stockholder and stakeholder interests. Also, the results category
in the 2003 criteria asks organizations to provide evidence of fiscal
accountability, ethical behavior, legal compliance and organizational
citizenship.
The renewed emphasis on governance and ethics is a result of national
needs for management reform and recommendations from many of the Baldrige
National Quality Programs private-sector partners.
Other areas receiving greater attention in the 2003 performance excellence
criteria include the need to capitalize on knowledge assets, the need
to create value for customers and the organization, and the alignment
of all aspects of an organizations performance management system
with the results measurements.
In addition to being the basis for a Baldrige Award application, the
Baldrige performance excellence criteria are used by thousands of
organizations to assess and improve their performance on a wide range
of key indicators. The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence
is available in editions for business, education and health care at
www.baldrige.nist.gov or by calling (301) 975-2036.
Named after the 26th Secretary of Commerce, the Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award was established by Congress in 1987 to enhance the competitiveness
of U.S. businesses. The award promotes quality awareness, recognizes
the quality and performance achievements of U.S. organizations, and
publicizes successful performance strategies. It has five categories:
manufacturing, service, small business, education and health care.
The award is not given for specific products or services. Since 1988,
46 organizations have received the Baldrige Award.
As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerces
Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurement,
standards and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade
and improve the quality of life.