The European Quality Awards

THE EUROPEAN QUALITY AWARDS.

By 1990, the European Community (now the European Union) felt that it had fallen behind Japan and the United States in the recognition of quality management. In that year, the European Foundation for Quality Management, with support from the European Organization for Quality and the European Commission, set about to create its own Deming or Baldrige equivalent, The European Quality Awards. The first winners were announced in October 1992.

The initial awards favored larger, for-profit companies, so by 1996 the European Commission began to give out additional awards for public sector organizations and for small- to mid-sized enterprises. The awards also have a category for operational units of companies, such as factories, research units, or assembly plants.

The European Quality Awards, regardless of category, judges applicants on nine criteria: (1) leadership; (2) people management; (3) policy and strategy, (4) resource management, (5) process management, (6) customer satisfaction, (7) people satisfaction (defined as the perception of people toward the organization), (8) impact on society, and (9) business results.

While the categories essentially copy those of the Baldrige Award, the emphasis on people's perceptions of the organization and of the organization's impact on society are unique to the European Quality Awards and add a societal element lacking in either the Deming or Baldrige Awards. The European Quality Awards also differ from the Deming and Baldrige, as noted earlier, in the various categories for eligible organizations. The European Quality Awards also differ in the nature of their awards jury, which is made up of business leaders as well as academics. Finally, by its nature, the European Union is more international than either Japan or the United States, and from the start, the award has been open to companies outside the European Union. Still, the award is limited to those companies that have at least 50 percent of their activities in Europe.

Applications to the program are examined by a team of six assessors, each of whom undergo training to ensure a high level of consistency in scoring. Assessors include some academics and quality professionals, but the majority are drawn from the ranks of experienced practicing managers from European countries. The application is assessed and scored on a scale from 0 to 1,000 points. Chart 1 illustrates the scoring system for the small- and medium-sized company award.

Eleven Customer-Focused Practices of Baldrige Award Winners

1. Multiple listening posts for understanding customer requirements

2. Highly refined recovery