An analysis of self-assessment practices using the business excellence model

The paper reports the findings of an examination of self-assessment practic es against the criteria of the business excellence model in ten different o rganizations. Among the main findings are that organizations attempt a numb er of approaches while gaining experience of self-assessment and therefore the movement from one approach to another needs to be planned and improved guidance provided, that management give insufficient consideration to the r esources required for each method of self-assessment and that there was a l ack of consistency in the coordination of the self-assessment process. It i s also pointed out that, among the organizations studied, there has been a lack of emphasis on the total quality management (TQM) philosophy and its p rinciples in the self-assessment process. It appears that the concept has b een rebadged as business excellence to move away from existing pre-concepts of TQM.