In 2007 nonprofits became eligible to apply for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and the state-level Baldrige-based Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE). There exists minimal research on quality management frameworks to guide performance excellence in nonprofits and there is a lack of understanding regarding the applicability and utility of the MBNQA and TAPE Criteria as a framework for performance excellence for nonprofit organizations. This study looks at how one nonprofit organization deployed the TAPE Criteria framework across the organization and the extent to which organizational learning resulted and was integrated across the organization. The qualitative case study utilized naturalistic inquiry methodology to chronicle situational themes and relationships that emerged during the organization's year-long process of preparing an application for the TAPE. The study took place in a natural setting and the researcher was immersed in the organization's experience as a participant-observer assisting with developing the application. Data collection methods included direct observation, interviews, and document analysis. The case study approach provided a context and perspective for other nonprofit entities seeking to assess and improve performance. The TAPE Criteria framework is a systematic and structured approach to improving performance excellence and its methodologies are repeatable and based on facts and data. Leaders recognized the value of assessing the organization's current condition in a holistic manner, yet they distinguished and used only those parts of the Criteria that they found meaningful and effective. Leadership viewed the TAPE Criteria in light of how it could support its mission success, rather than supplanting management practices that had historically achieved organizational goals that met or exceeded customer needs and expectations. The results of the study are relevant and may assist nonprofit executives and administrators in applying and utilizing Baldrige-based improvement methodologies. The information gleaned from the study will help administrators of the TAPE to improve the usefulness and functionality of the framework across all business arenas. TAPE administrators should benefit from the research as it provides information on how individuals experienced and learned the taxonomy of the framework.

While considerable research has explored the skills elite professionals use to sustain performance excellence in a multitude of disciplines, much less research has focused on professional musicians. Multi-faceted skills are needed to maintain performance excellence. This research investigates the deliberate skills and processes professional opera singers employ to preserve elite performance. Data drawn from individual semi-structured interviews with ten professional opera singers, with a minimum career length of ten to twenty years, were analyzed within the methodology of grounded theory. Results revealed a strong role for creation of a music "road-map" in the context of deliberate preparedness in both physical and mental skills, which contributed to high levels of learning self-efficacy. High-level skills cultivated in the preparation phase were applied directly within the context of live performance, facilitated "flow" experiences, involved energy exchanges with other performers and audiences, and resulted in higher levels of performing self-efficacy.

While considerable research has explored the skills elite professionals use to sustain performance excellence in a multitude of disciplines, much less research has focused on professional musicians. Multi-faceted skills are needed to maintain performance excellence. This research investigates the deliberate skills and processes professional opera singers employ to preserve elite performance. Data drawn from individual semi-structured interviews with ten professional opera singers, with a minimum career length of ten to twenty years, were analyzed within the methodology of grounded theory. Results revealed a strong role for creation of a music "road-map" in the context of deliberate preparedness in both physical and mental skills, which contributed to high levels of learning self-efficacy. High-level skills cultivated in the preparation phase were applied directly within the context of live performance, facilitated "flow" experiences, involved energy exchanges with other performers and audiences, and resulted in higher levels of performing self-efficacy.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / W. Franklin Spikes / The purpose of this basic interpretative qualitative study was to discover and understand graduates’ perceptions of customer service from their chosen college or university. How graduates perceive customer service of institutions of higher learning may induce some educational institutions to pursue continuous improvement and performance excellence. Graduates from the master’s level or higher have spent more than the average time in the educational setting compared to undergraduates or bachelor’s level students and are more likely to have greater awareness concerning the customer service attributes. These perceptions could give rise to process improvement techniques and programs that would be useful for a variety of institutions. The method used to acquire the data was interviewing individuals who had completed at least their master’s degree. The results of these interviews were analyzed by consolidating, reducing, and interpreting what the interviewees had to say and what the researcher discovered. Triangulation through reflection and field notes was utilized to ensure credibility of findings.

There is a growing demand for accountability of nonprofit organizations, and nonprofit business leaders are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate operational effectiveness. The problem is that some business leaders of nonprofit organizations lack strategies for identifying and selecting actionable performance measures of operational effectiveness. Using the plan-do-study-act conceptual framework, this single case study of a nonprofit organization located in the mid-Atlantic region of United States was conducted to explore strategies that 3 of its business leaders used to identify and select actionable performance measures of operational effectiveness. Using thematic analysis of data collected from semistructured interviews, documents, and public sources, emergent themes included: (a) usefulness of measures, (b) customer experience, and (c) workforce education. The findings of this study may have implications for social change by helping nonprofit business leaders achieve consensus on measures of effectiveness beyond financial measures. Additionally, the findings could support the usefulness of transparency in reporting performance outcomes, encourage a shift in focus from program spending and ratios to effectiveness, and prompt external stakeholders to expect performance measures that demonstrate effectiveness in nonprofit program operations.

Nonprofit organization leaders increasingly encounter social burdens and financial difficulties, jeopardizing ongoing success and organizational sustainability. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore revenue diversification strategies used by 3 leaders of a small nonprofit organization in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States through the conceptual lens of modern portfolio theory. Data were collected via in-depth semistructured interviews, and member checking was used to facilitate accuracy, consistency, and integrity. Methodological triangulation included a document review and analysis of financial statements, tax returns, strategy objectives, the organizational website, social media, and nonprofit data reports. Data from documents and interviews were manually coded, and themes were identified using thematic analysis. Six themes emerged related to process strengths and opportunities for improvement including capitalizing on a mission-driven workforce; using a systematic strategic planning process; building relationships with partners, suppliers, and collaborators; integrating performance measures to areas of importance; and developing and implanting systematic methods to assess customer satisfaction and workforce engagement. The findings from this study might contribute to positive social change by providing revenue diversification strategies and the supporting processes that leaders of small nonprofit organizations can use to enhance existing services, expand community programs, and create ongoing organizational success.

This study investigated the impact of the Malcolm Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence (HCPE) on effectiveness in health care organizational performance. The quality of health care has tremendous social and economic consequences for the United States (U.S.), including lost wages, reduced productivity, higher legal expenses, and lower confidence in the health care system. Increasing health care productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality offers critical means to reducing cost and improving U.S. economic performance, which is an objective of the Affordable Care Act enacted by Congress in 2010. This study compared Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients to competitors in their geographic markets using Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) performance measures to determine if there was a relationship between the use of the HCPE as a business model and the performance of health care organizations. This study included an analysis comparing 34 hospitals using the HCPE as an organizational business model to 153 hospitals in their geographic markets not using the HCPE. There were 42 CMS measures classified into 2 major categories focused on (1) patient experience measures and (2) clinical processes and outcome measures. The results showed that the study-identified hospitals that used the HCPE had values representing higher performance on all 10 patient experience measures than the non-HCPE hospitals, and that 9 of the 10 measures were statistically significant. Although the group mean differences were not statistically significant, the study results showed that HCPE hospitals had performance outcomes with mean values representing higher performance than the non-HCPE hospitals in 38 of the 42 (90%) of the study measures. These results should provide leadership with confidence that the HCPE serve as a valid model to align organizational design, strategy, systems, and human capital to create long-term effectiveness in an institutionalized high performance culture. / acase@tulane.edu

The culminating recommendations of the United States Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings’ 2006 Commission on the Future of Higher Education report demand greater access, affordability, quality and accountability in higher education. Student affairs, as well as their academic counterparts, must show that they function effectively and contribute to student learning and development. A promising program review process for student affairs to fulfill this expectation is found in the Education Criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and its state-level equivalent, the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in Education Criteria. The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence Education Criteria, Progress Level, as the basis for a comprehensive program review in two diverse student affairs departments. Additionally, the study was to determine the potential usefulness of the Criteria as a management strategy for senior leadership in each department to focus on assessment, planning, improvement and change. The descriptive case study was conducted using naturalistic inquiry methodology with two student affairs departments. The researcher spent nine months in the field as a participant observer. Methodology included observations of training and team leader meetings; interviews with participants, department directors, and the Office of the Vice President; document review of both self-study reports; and the researcher’s reflexive journal. Student affairs departments are particularly well-suited for the quality concept of serving customers and, in this case, students as their primary customer. The researcher concluded that the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in Education Criteria serve as a useful basis for a comprehensive program review and as a management strategy for senior leadership under the following conditions: The department must be a mature and functional unit. Student affairs staff need a foundation in quality principles, in general, and the core values, Criteria and language of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in Education before embarking on the self-study process. The Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Category and the Planning Category provided the most introspection and action planning for both departments. The Process Category was the most challenging for both departments.

The purpose of this study was to identify those elements of the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence that central office leaders, principals, and teachers perceive as having an impact on collective teacher efficacy. The study determined if there was a relationship between the perceptions of central office leaders, principals, and teachers concerning the implementation of the criteria, the difficulty of implementation, and the impact of implementation on collective teacher efficacy. The population for this study included sixty individuals from three school districts from Texas, North Carolina, and New Mexico who have implemented the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence for a minimum of five years. The Delphi Technique was used for the study utilizing a questionnaire linked to six of the seven categories of the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, which were reported using numerical and graphic techniques. The key findings of this study suggest that the Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence, which the three study school districts chose as a framework for improving organizational performance, has had a perceived positive impact on collective teacher efficacy. The following conclusions were drawn from the data analysis: ?? Implementation of the Baldrige Criteria requires a long-term commitment, ?? Districts committed to implementation of the criteria develop systematic approaches to management processes, persevere in their deployment, and continually assess performance to determine areas for improvement. ?? The difficulty of implementation of the criteria relates to the effort required to align and deploy systematic approaches throughout the organization. ?? Commitment and implementation begins at the senior leadership level of central office and cascades through the organization to principals and classroom teachers. The extent to which systematic management approaches have been deployed to the classroom teacher level determines the level of impact of implementation on collective efficacy. ?? The Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence provide a framework for school districts to improve organizational performance from a systems perspective to achieve organizational and student success. ?? The more mature a district??s deployment/implementation of the criteria, the greater the impact on collective teacher efficacy.

This study was an attempt to add to existing research by estimating the ability of third-party examiners to assess whether or not an organization successfully implemented strategies based on the criteria of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE). The TAPE is given each year by the Quality Texas Foundation and recognizes organizations that demonstrate superior performance as it is defined by customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. The TAPE is a state-level award for quality that uses the same criteria as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence. This research was an analysis of the TAPE process at the level of examiners, also known as the Board of Examiners. The Board is made up of approximately 150 experienced professionals from several types of business sectors and is responsible for evaluating organizational self-assessments. In this quantitative study, data were converted from the Quality Texas Foundation into a database. Because the set of the TAPE applicants included in the study consisted of the entire population of TAPE applicants selected from 2001 to 2004, descriptive statistics were appropriate for producing informative data that could be analyzed for variation and stability in the scoring process. Exploration of patterns in descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance were the primary tools used in this particular study along with Cronbach’s Alpha as an indicator of reliability. Since scoring for the TAPE is based on an individual examiner’s best subjective assessment, it was impossible to have one objective score against which all the other scores could be measured. The team consensus score was therefore used as the true score for measurement. Establishing reliability of examiners’ scores was a problem due to the fact that organizations and teams did not repeat. Results from the study led to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to make a determination on what influences examiners’ scoring consistency. More data will need to be collected in such a way so as to make it possible to identify that impact consistency of examiner scores.