The Baldrige National Quality Award program was established by The Malcolm

Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987. The award is named for Malcolm

Baldrige, who served as Secretary of Commerce from 1981 until his death in 1987. The

purpose of the law is “to help to stimulate American companies to improve quality and

productivity for the pride of recognition while obtaining a competitive edge through

increased profits; to recognize the achievements of those companies that improve the

quality of their goods and services and providing an example to others; to establish

guidelines and criteria that can be used by business, industrial, governmental, and other

organizations in evaluating their own quality improvement efforts; and to provide

specific guidance for 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."

The Baldrige Criteria provide a nonprescriptive framework for organizational

assessment and improvement. They allow an organization to develop its own creative

approaches aligned with organizational needs, and provide the basis for conducting

organizational self-assessments, for making awards, and for giving feedback to

applicants. The criteria play three roles in strengthening U.S. competitiveness: to help

improve organizational performance practices, capabilities, and results; to facilitate

communication and sharing of best practices information among U.S. organizations of all

types; and to serve as a working tool for understanding and managing performance and

for guiding organizational planning and opportunities for learning. The criteria provide a

tool for achieving performance excellence through an integrated approach to