ORGANIZATIONAL QUALITY - AN EXAMINATION OF THE BALDRIGE,MALCOLM NATIONAL QUALITY FRAMEWORK

One of the major obstacles to empirical investigations of quality in o rganizations is the difficulty in defining precisely what quality is. One defining framework that is widely accepted in for-profit organizat ions is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework. This study examines the validity of the proposed relationships among the MBNQA dimensions using data from higher education. The empirical r esults help identify a modified model that has implications for managi ng quality improvement initiatives.