Discussion Ouestions 3. What motivates U.S. firms to compete for the Malcolm Bal
ID: 396015 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion Ouestions 3. What motivates U.S. firms to compete for the Malcolm Baldrige Award? How could a firm benefit from participating in the Baldrige competition, even if it did not apply for the award? 5. Category 5 of the Baldrige criteria focuses on workforce. Why do you think the authors of the Baldrige criteria included this category? Why is human resource management an important consideration in quality planning and management? 11. In what sense does excess inventory act as a security blanket" for manufacturing firms? 20. Do you believe quality approaches are influenced by culture? How?Explanation / Answer
3. The biggest motivation that US firms have to compete for Malcolm Baldrige Award is that it gives a tremendous boost to the company’s reputation. It is the highest national quality award given to any company for its excellence in performance. Hence, it is a matter of great prestige to win this award.
When a firm applies for Baldrige award they have to self assess their organization. They need to assess the development and deployment of processes, their approach towards the daily operations of their organization. Whether the organization is big or small, whatever the industry is, the organizations can apply Baldrige Excellence Framework to self –assess the organization and evaluate their current operations and processes. This helps in plugging and closing any gaps that the organizations might have.
5. Baldrige’s Category 5 focuses on Workforce or Human Resource because workforce should be enabled and trained enough to use their full potential to support the company’s aims and objectives. This also entails company’s involvement in development of internal environment which is favourable and encourages full participation and employee’s personal growth. This initiative directs the company to empower its employees to the respond to any changes in customer’s needs. This should be done by properly training the workforce, facilitating their learning skills, open mindedness towards new ideas and developing new skills and having open communication with the employees. Employees should be provided a cohesive work environment. The applicant of the Baldrige’s award outlines the systems they have for employee compensation, recognition and engagement.
11. The excess inventory acts as the security blanket by having more than the necessary amount required for manufacturing. Having more than the required inventory guarantees that the production line will not be stopped at any given point because there will be enough in the inventory to carry on the manufacturing given the safe storage conditions.
20. The culture of an organization shows the behaviour patterns followed in the organization and how does these behaviour patterns have helped in keeping the company together. Organizations which encourage productivity, openness and innovation generally are the successful organizations.
The organizational culture not only manages employees, it also manages the managers and how they manage their subordinates. This helps in shaping the behaviour of the employees and thus shaping the behaviour of their customers. Culture is often influenced by the organizational belief and therefore leads to collaborative goal setting, openness in culture and discussions, innovation strategies and positive feedback.