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 CronbachâÂÂs Alpha as an indicator of reliability.
Since scoring for the TAPE is based on an individual examinerâÂÂs 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 examinersâ 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
examinersâ 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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4785 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Plunkett, Brandi Lyn |
| Contributors | Cole, Bryan, R., Egan, Toby, Marshall |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 617773 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds